SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
| x | Annual Report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003 or
| ¨ | Transaction Report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
Commission File Number 1-13616
STORAGE COMPUTER CORPORATION
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
| Delaware | 02-0450593 | |
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |
| 11 Riverside Street, Nashua, New Hampshire | 03062-1373 | |
| (Address of Principal Executive Offices) | (Zip Code) | |
Registrants telephone number, including area code: (603) 880-3005
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(b) of the act:
| Title of each Class |
Name of each Exchange on which Registered | |
| Common Stock $0.001 par value | American Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the act:
None
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark if the disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrants knowledge, in a definitive proxy or information statement incorporated in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendments to this Form 10-K. x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2) Yes ¨ No x
The aggregate market value of the common stock of the registrant held by non-affiliates was approximately $13,801,000 as of June 30, 2003, the last business day of the registrants most recently completed second fiscal quarter. On April 14, 2004 there were issued and outstanding 38,900,125 shares of the registrants common stock, with a par value of $0.001.
Because the calculation of shares of registrants voting stock held by non-affiliates requires a calculation of the number of shares held by affiliates, such figure, as shown on the cover page hereof, such calculation has been made solely on the basis of information, reports and notices filed by affiliates of the registrant under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All outstanding shares beneficially owned by executive officers and directors of the registrant or by any shareholder beneficially owning more than 5% of registrants common stock, as disclosed herein, were considered solely for purposes of this disclosure to be held by affiliates.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED
BY REFERENCE
Part III incorporates by reference portions of the Companys Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on July 15, 2004 which the Company intends to file within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003.
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The Company
Storage Computer Corporation (the Company SCC or we), a pioneer in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) technology is a provider of high performance storage software solutions focused on developing advanced storage architectures to address the emerging needs of high-bandwith and other performance-impaired applications. Storage Computers technology supports a variety of applications including advanced database activities, wide are network storage and sophisticated business continuity topologies including:
| | Networked Attached Storage |
| | Storage Area Networks |
| | Direct Attached Storage |
| | Storage Wide Area Networking |
Based upon advanced architectures, parallel processing hardware, and embedded, real-time operating system, we believe we have the industrys most versatile collection of connectivity options. A single storage system can simultaneously support multiple heterogeneous hosts through any combination of connectivity interfaces, including NAS, SAN, FibreChannel, SCSI and IP. These high-end solutions also entail peer-to-peer connectivity, allowing high-speed volume connectivity and data transfer or replication over Fiber and OC12/48.
Through our Cyber product lines and patented storage software, these solutions support multiple open systems servers and are modular and scalable for future growth.
Our performance-optimized Virtual Storage Architecture, product line combines intelligent controller, disk drive, and memory technology with patented memory mapping techniques and a powerful real-time operating system to deliver high-performance and data protection across the mix of applications found in todays open system environments.
Company History
The Company was incorporated in Delaware in 1991. Initial work began in late 1984 with the development of RAID technologies within a predecessor company Cab-Tek, Inc. From 1984 to 1990, products at RAID levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 were developed and tested. Development then commenced on the Virtual Storage Architecture to overcome the performance bottlenecks inherent in other RAID implementations and to achieve fault tolerant storage without impeding performance. The resulting patented technology was transferred to the newly established Storage Computer Corporation in August 1991.
Products based upon the Companys unique RAID technology began shipping to customer production sites in the second half of 1992. The Company pioneered the RAID 7 (patented) technology incorporated in our Virtual Storage Architecture, which formed the basis for our StorageSuite product family and is found in our OmniRaid products. Based upon this performance-optimized architecture, the product line combines high-end controller technology, disk drives, scalable centralized and distributed memory mechanisms, proprietary memory mapping techniques, and a real-time operating system to deliver high-performance, fault-tolerant storage solutions.
In September 2000, Storage Computer Corporation acquired CyberStorage Systems Corporation. This acquisition enabled us to expand the development of our advanced storage and server solutions to migrate into the Optical Networking world and brought us extensive technical expertise in the area of networking, optical interfaces, and advanced media delivery architectures. Founded in 1998, Cyber Storage Systems emerged as a strong provider of innovative Information Management Solutions for the Digital Communications marketplace and Hardware/Software, IP based, Multimedia (IVOD, Multicast, Telemedicine, Distance Learning, Training, Video Conferencing) solutions.
Beginning in 2001 and continuing through 2002, we began integrating the Virtual Storage Architecture onto the next-generation, advanced storage and server platforms. We are now in a position to rapidly advance into the next dimension of networked storage and server solutions. With product lines addressing the NAS (network attached storage), SAN (storage area networks), and DAS (direct attached storage) market spaces as well as solutions based on those product lines targeted to reduce the stress associated with performance-impaired applications.
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With new products now in place and having the benefit of owning potentially lucrative intellectual property patent rights the Company is implementing its plan to form strategic alliances with distribution partners. With these alliances in place the Company anticipates that the resulting revenue growth will return the Company to profitability.
Industry Overview
Although Internet usage and demand continues to grow significantly, the last several years have been tumultuous for the technology sector markets. Generally, telecommunications companies had several weak years with large companies declaring losses and even bankruptcy in a few cases. Technology companies have terminated tens of thousands of employees and have taken huge restructuring charges. Despite this, demand for data storage and manageability of that data continues to be on the forefront of corporate needs. Over the past 5+ years all markets have undergone a dramatic shift to new information processing modes, such as client/server computing incorporating enterprise databases, data warehousing, image processing, multi-media, video-on-demand, virtual reality processing and Internet/Intranet services. These application modes are continuing to increase demand for data storage that is scalable in terms of capacity, performance, connectivity and manageability.
The data storage market has itself gone through turmoil during the past several years. The events which occurred on September 11, 2001, created a strong focus on Business Continuance practices while the economy in general has forced companies to become more cost conscious within their IT data centers. Host computing platforms that continue to make quantum leaps in processing performance drive the market for high performance storage. We believe that users and networks will continue to demand high-performance storage systems to eliminate performance bottlenecks and to take full advantage of increased server/workstation processing power.
Significant market shifts have occurred over the past several years with increased focus on networking elements. Momentum has been gained in the deployment of Storage Area Networks (SAN) and Network Attached Storage (NAS). Momentum in these areas is based on the implementation of advanced high speed networking technologies. With the increased deployment of Gigabit Ethernet as well as Optical networks, storage methods based on IP (Internet Protocol) networks is gaining strength. We believe this model will create an optimal purchasing dynamic for customers, where storage will be purchased on demand and result in reduced cost of acquiring and managing storage.
Market Positioning
The Company is directly focused on the networked storage market. Our NAS (Network Attached Storage) appliance is now generally available. During 2000, we introduced the CyberBorg storage system, which is a high speed, high performance SAN (Storage Area Network) component with various connectivity options. Industry research has shown that over the next several years market adoption will increasingly focus on converged storage systems, those which combine the best elements of NAS and SAN topologies.
The Company has focused its development efforts on building converged storage product offerings. By integrating our Virtual Storage Architecture into integrated NAS and SAN hardware platforms we will achieve an extremely high level of flexibility and functionality for our customer base. Our storage platforms entail a diverse set of interconnectivity options including OC12 and OC48 (Optical Carrier) which yields a position in Storage Wide Area Networking (SWAN). Although the telecommunications industry was in turmoil over the last few years, the Internet and optical backbones are stronger than ever. With increased demand for streamlining the efficiency of corporate wide area networks as well as an increase in metro optical area build outs, we believe that our product and market positioning associated with SWAN is positioned for not only addressing near term customer needs, but for the future.
Product Line
CyberNAS:
The CyberNAS is a Network Attached Storage software package, which is modular and scalable and can be targeted to a wide range of end users. The product combines a disk storage subsystem, RAID implementation and file server all in one. The file system supports Microsoft Windows environment (CIFS), Unix (NFS) and AppleShare. The CyberNAS also has a diverse set of connectivity options including Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet (wire speed) and OC12/48 (optical carrier).
CyberVSA Storage Operating System CyberVSA has proven its ability to double, triple, even quintuple the performance of database applications in over 3,000 customer installations by providing Virtual Solid State disk capability. The CyberVSA was ported from proprietary hardware to open systems hardware, and renamed CyberVSA Storage Operating System to reflect its open systems capabilities The CyberVSA virtual storage architecture product takes advanced high performance storage solutions to the next generation. The CyberVSAs central intelligence and storage management software can manage a network of intelligent heterogeneous server and storage devices to enable real-time optimization of storage operations. This capability, combined with the ability to logically distribute data streams across any number or combination of physical disks creates optimal efficiency while enabling the highest attainable performance in an enterprise storage environment. Sold as software as well as integrated hardware/software solutions through partners, the CyberVSA offers a full range of advanced state of the art storage solutions including Virtualization, High Performance Throughput, Dynamic Storage Growth, extensive Storage Resource Management and more. The CyberVSA has been architected to accommodate all existing storage interconnectivity standards, thus allowing it to function within existing data center structures. Employing a patented paging memory technology along with an RTOS kernel, the CyberVSA has been demonstrated to be the fastest storage management solution available.
Legacy Products (Available by customer order only)
Storage Computer Cyber Ultra
The Cyber Ultra Series is designed for low to mid tier storage hardware applications. The unit delivers multi-channel 160MB/sec Ultra160 SCSI-3 throughput to both host and devices with an option for two Dual Loop Fibre to the Host channels. This is offered in a broad range of capacity configurations featuring sophisticated array management tools and intelligent, new, backplane, SCA cabinetry designed to provide enhanced data reliability and configuration flexibility.
The system doubles, and sometimes triples, the performance of traditional Ultra SCSI-3 RAID systems, is seamlessly compatible with older SCSI technology, and is ready to take full advantage of an upgrade to Fibre Channel technology at the host level. The Cyber Ultra is configurable from 72GB to 16TB with half height 18GB, 36GB, 73GB, 147GB, and 15,000-RPM Ultra160 SCSI-3 drives. The Ultra is scalable to multi-terabyte capacities.
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Storage Computer CyberFibre
The CyberFibre is a SAN ready hardware solution entailing multiple host connections and flexibility to adapt to the most taxable storage applications. The system supports online dynamic addition of disk capacity to existing RAID set(s), With support for 18GB, 36GB, 73GB, 147GB and greater 10,000 and 15,000RPM drive configurations and up to 512 MB of cache per controller, the Storage Computer CyberFibre scales to 120 disk drives on a single controller. Systems are scalable to Multi-Terabyte configurations. New rackmount cabinets feature environmental monitoring and alert systems, with redundant hot swappable power supplies and cooling fans. Utilizing 15,000RPM fiber drives, high-performance systems can be initially configured with as few as 5 disk drives, and expanded to 120 disk drives on a single controller as capacity requirements grow. Remote access capability allows system setup, diagnostics and maintenance procedures to be performed from remote locations. An interactive host-based Graphical User Interface provides local monitoring and control of system performance. User-selectable remote notification mechanisms include e-mail, pagers and text files to alert designated personnel of system changes. SNMP-based remote monitoring and control of system operations is optional.
Customers and Applications
The Company has a worldwide customer list. Products based upon the Virtual Storage Architecture have been sold to customers across a broad range of industries including banking and financial services, education, technology, telecommunications, military/aerospace, general services, government, and manufacturing. It is our goal to continue to market to existing customers to leverage our multiple product offerings and to continue to expand our customer base for high-performance storage solutions.
Customer Service And Support
We offer our customers a full array of customizable support options and programs. Customers have the option to decide how they want their service and support structured, so that the maintenance of the customers data storage equipment fits into the customers business model. Our technical services organization comprises a group of skilled support personnel, located at our corporate headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire and in field locations in the United States.
In addition to our own support engineers and technicians, our strategic service alliances with third-party service providers enable us to offer comprehensive, high-quality programs to support customers on a worldwide basis. Our strategic service alliances are formed with third-party providers that are some of the most respected organizations in the service industry. All in-house and third-party service technicians supporting our customers are trained by our personnel, and service parts are generally stocked in local service offices. Service technicians are backed by a technical support hotline staffed by support analysts at our facilities. Our personnel always take the initial service call, determine the logistics of the support plan, and manage the process. Onsite services may be tailored to customer requirements in terms of hours covered, response times and onsite hardware service providers.
Competition
The information storage market is extremely competitive. Companies such as EMC Corporation, IBM Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, NCR Corporation, Storage Technology, Sun Microsystems, and more than 100 other public and private companies provide disk arrays for a wide variety of computer systems, workstations and PCs. Although we are currently unaware of any other vendor offering identical product offerings, we cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against existing companies or future entrants to the marketplace. While we believe that the price-performance characteristics of our products are currently competitive, increased competition including the introduction of new products by our competitors, could result in price reductions, reduced gross margin and loss of market share, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. Many of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than us. As a result, they may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements, or to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their products than us. In addition, current and potential competitors have established or may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties. Accordingly, it is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and rapidly acquire significant market share.
Licensing
During 2001 and 2002, we entered into three agreements concerning the licensing of our intellectual property. In December 2001, we entered into an agreement with XIOTech Corporation and its parent company, Seagate Technology, Inc. under which we granted to XIOTech a fully paid up, non-exclusive license in one of our patents in return for a one-time royalty payment of $2,500,000. At the same time we also entered into a royalty free cross license agreement with XIOTech covering all of XIOTechs and the Companys respective patents. In October 2002, we entered into an agreement with Hitachi, Ltd. pursuant to which we granted to Hitachi a fully paid up, non-exclusive license to use our patents and to sell Hitachi products that may be subject to a claim in any of our patents. In return for the license grant, Hitachi agreed not to oppose an appeal we filed in the Court of Appeal in London. During March 2001 we filed legal actions against Hitachi Data Systems Limited in the United Kingdom for infringement of two of the European patents in our intellectual property portfolio. Hitachi filed a counterclaim against the Company alleging that these two patents were invalid. The trial was completed in July 2002 and in August 2002 the Judge ruled that neither of our patents was shown to be valid in the United Kingdom or infringed by Hitachi. On October 17, 2002, the judgment for the defendant, Hitachi, on their counterclaim was entered and our European Patent (UK) 0,294,287 (287) and European Patent (UK) 0,539,494 were revoked. The Order for the revocation of the 287 Patent was stayed pending appeal and we were granted permission to appeal the judgment so far as it concerns the 287 Patent. It was also ordered by consent of the
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parties that there be no order as to costs. On October 31, 2002 we filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal seeking that the judgment with respect to the 287 Patent be set aside and that the Court of Appeal find that the claims of the 287 Patent are valid, that Hitachi infringes the claims of the patent and that there be a certificate of contested validity in respect of the claims of the 287 Patent. On July 30, 2003, the Court of Appeals in London dismissed our appeal. See Item 3-Legal Proceedings.
In addition, in November 2002, we entered into a licensing agreement with EMC Benelux BV under which we granted to EMC Benelux BV and its affiliates a fully paid up, non-exclusive license to use our patents to make, use, lease and sell any EMC Benelux BV and its affiliates products that may be subject to a claim in any of our patents. In return for this license grant, EMC Benelux BV paid us a one-time royalty payment of $3,000,000. Although we are continuing to pursue additional license arrangements where appropriate, there can be no assurances that we will be able to secure additional license fees, during the coming 12 months. Any failure to secure additional licensing revenue would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Sales and Marketing
Domestic. Our products are sold domestically through a combination of direct sales personnel, value-added resellers and other distributors. Our direct sales organization coordinates the activities of our resellers and distributors and seeks to actively participate with them in selling efforts in order to enable us to establish strong direct ties with our customers and end users.
International. We have established several different operational methods in order to develop international markets. While we have temporarily closed the operations of our European sales organizations, in 2004 we plan to use distributors and value-added resellers to penetrate certain international markets and maximize returns on our marketing and sales efforts.
The remaining international markets served by us are coordinated and supported from the United States through the use of our independent distributor network. Our distributors are responsible for penetrating and developing their respective markets, providing support and maintenance services and maintaining an inventory of spare parts. The distributors are also responsible for establishing relationships with value-added resellers, who sell our products to final end users.
For the year ended December 31, 2003, product sales of $459,000 to one customer, Compuserve, were in excess of 10% of consolidated revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2002, license fees received from EMC Benelux BV and from XIOTech Corporation during the year ended December 31, 2001, each represented in excess of 10% of total consolidated revenues in those years. In addition, product sales of $1,350,000 to one customer, World Domination, Inc. were in excess of 10% of 2001 consolidated revenue.
Revenues by geographic area are summarized as follows:
| United States |
Europe |
Total | |||||||
| 2003 |
|||||||||
| Revenues |
|||||||||
| Products and services |
$ | 1,045,038 | $ | | $ | 1,045,038 | |||
| License fees |
| | | ||||||
| $ | 1,045,038 | $ | | $ | 1,045,038 | ||||
| 2002 |
|||||||||
| Revenues |
|||||||||
| Products and services |
$ | 1,842,273 | $ | 529,837 | $ | 2,372,110 | |||
| License fees |
3,000,000 | | 3,000,000 | ||||||
| $ | 4,842,273 | $ | 529,837 | $ | 5,372,110 | ||||
| 2001 |
|||||||||
| Revenues |
|||||||||
| Products and services |
$ | 5,310,011 | $ | 1,237,616 | $ | 6,547,627 | |||
| License fees |
2,500,000 | | 2,500,000 | ||||||
| $ | 7,810,011 | $ | 1,237,616 | $ | 9,047,627 | ||||
Research and Development
Since our inception, we have made substantial investments in research and development. We believe that our future performance will depend in large part on our ability to maintain and enhance our current products, develop new products that achieve market acceptance, maintain technological competitiveness and meet an expanding range of customer requirements. Our future growth depends substantially upon the success of our current product line and related products as well as new products that
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may be developed; however, we cannot assure you that our products will attain broad market acceptance. Due to the complexity of the engineering effort required to produce new data storage subsystem products, the development and commercial exploitation of new products are subject to significant technical risks. We cannot assure you that new products will be introduced on a timely basis or at all. If new products are delayed or do not achieve market acceptance, our business, operating results and financial condition will be materially adversely affected. In addition, we cannot assure you that customers will not defer orders in anticipation of new product introductions by our competitors or us.
Our product may contain undetected software errors or failures when first introduced or as new versions are released. We cannot assure you that, despite testing by us and by current and potential customers, errors will not be found in new products until after commencement of commercial shipments, resulting in loss of or delay in market acceptance, which could have a material adverse effect upon our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our total expenses for research and development for fiscal years 2003, 2002, and 2001 were $971,000, $2,759,000, and $4,335,000, respectively. Research and development efforts in 2004 are expected to be at a lower level than prior years and are expected to be focused on increasing the individual capabilities and performance of existing products and developing new value added software products to provide our installed base with greater functionality, as well as to attempt to expand that installed base.
Proprietary Rights
Our policy is to protect our technology by, among other things, filing patent applications with respect to technology considered important to the development of our business. We have been awarded certain U.S. patents and have additional U.S. patent applications pending. Foreign counterparts of certain of these applications have been filed or may be filed at the appropriate time. We decide on a case-by-case basis whether and in what countries we will file foreign counterparts of a U.S. patent application.
We believe that our products, trademarks and service marks do not infringe on the proprietary rights of third parties. We cannot assure you, however, third parties will not assert infringement claims against us in the future. If such a claim is made, we will evaluate the claim as it relates to its products and, if appropriate, may seek a license to use the protected technology. We cannot assure you that we would be able to obtain a license to use any such protected technology or that any such license could be obtained on terms that would not have a material adverse effect on us. If we, or our suppliers, are unable to license any such protected technology, we could be prohibited from incorporating or marketing such products. We could also incur substantial costs to redesign our products or to defend any legal action taken against them. In the event our products are found to infringe protected technology, we could be required to pay damages to the infringed party or be enjoined from manufacturing and selling such products.
We require all employees, and technical and other consultants and advisors to execute confidentiality agreements upon the commencement of employment or consulting relationships with us. These agreements generally provide that all confidential information developed or made known to the individual during the course of the individuals relationship with us is to be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties except in specific circumstances. All of our key technical employees have also entered into agreements providing for the assignment of rights to inventions made by them while in our employment. Although we continue to take protective measures to protect our proprietary technology, we cannot assure you that these measures will be successful. In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as U.S. law.
We believe that there are products being sold that infringe our patents and we intend to vigorously enforce our intellectual patent property rights. We will be seeking royalties for the past infringement, in addition to licensing agreements for the future production and sale of such infringing products. See Item 3Legal Proceedings.
Employees
As of December 31, 2003, we had 17 full time employees. Our ability to develop and market our products and to establish and maintain a competitive position in our industry will depend, in large part, upon our ability to attract and retain qualified technical, marketing and managerial personnel, of which there can be no assurance. We consider our relations with our employees to be good. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
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We currently lease from an affiliate a 35,000 sq. ft. facility that is occupied by our research and development and administrative operations in Nashua, New Hampshire. In 2003, we paid annual rental of $311,904 to lease this facility. In December 2000, we executed a five-year operating lease for these facilities, which provides for annual adjustments to the monthly rental payment based upon the previous years consumer price index. The lease has a five-year renewal option, exercisable at our election, and does not provide us with a purchase option for the property. The current monthly rental is $ 25,992, which we believe was comparable to rentals of similar properties in the area and indicative of the fair market rental that could be obtained from an unrelated third party in an arms-length transaction, as of the date we entered into such lease. See Item 13Certain Relationships and Related Transactions. We believe that all our properties and premises are adequately protected by insurance coverage. We believe that our existing facilities are adequate for our current needs and that additional space will be available as needed.
In December 2001, Marketlink Technologies, LLC filed a civil action against the Company in the Circuit Court for Oakland County, Michigan, alleging that the Company owed them a $156,000 termination payment under the terms of a manufacturers representative agreement that the Company terminated for cause in April 2001 because of Marketlinks inability to sell the Companys products and perform the services required by the agreement. In January 2002, the Company filed counterclaims against Marketlink in this matter, including a claim for breach of contract. The case was tried in December 2003. Following the trial, the Court entered its order finding that the Company is liable to Marketlink for the $156,000. Several post-order motions are currently before the Court that will affect the final amount due. The Company is considering an appeal.
During March 2001 we filed legal actions against Hitachi Data Systems Limited in the United Kingdom for infringement of two of the European patents in our intellectual property portfolio. Hitachi filed a counterclaim against the Company alleging that these two patents were invalid. The trial was completed in July 2002 and in August 2002 the Judge ruled that neither of our patents was shown to be valid in the United Kingdom or infringed by Hitachi. On October 17, 2002, the judgment for the defendant, Hitachi, on their counterclaim was entered and our European Patent (UK) 0,294,287 (287) and European Patent (UK) 0,539,494 were revoked. The Order for the revocation of the 287 Patent was stayed pending appeal and we were granted permission to appeal the judgment so far as it concerns the 287 Patent. It was also ordered by consent of the parties that there be no order as to costs. On October 31, 2002 we filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal seeking that the judgment with respect to the 287 Patent be set aside and that the Court of Appeal find that the claims of the 287 Patent are valid, that Hitachi infringes the claims of the patent and that there be a certificate of contested validity in respect of the claims of the 287 Patent. On July 30, 2003, the Court of Appeals in London dismissed our appeal.
In October 2001, we filed a patent infringement action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas against Veritas Software Corporation and Veritas Software Global Corporation alleging that certain Veritas Software Corporation storage products infringe Storage Computers intellectual property patent number U.S. 5,893,919 entitled Apparatus and Method for Storing Data with Selectable Data Protection Using Mirroring and Selectable Parity Inhibition. In February 2002, we filed an additional patent infringement action in the United States District Court of the Northern District of Texas, against Veritas Software Corporation and Veritas Software Global Corporation alleging that certain Veritas Software Corporation storage products infringe Storage Computers intellectual property, specifically U.S. 5,257,367 entitled Data Storage system with Asynchronous Host Operating System Communication Link. However, we amended our complaint to dismiss claims arising under this patent in September 2002. In March 2002, we filed a third patent infringement action against Veritas Software Corporation and Veritas Software Global Corporation alleging certain Veritas Software Corporation storage products infringe Storage Computers intellectual property patent number U.S. 6,098,128 entitled Universal Storage Management System. Our claim is for injunctive relief, damages and legal costs arising from the alleged infringement.
These actions were referred to a court appointed mediator with an initial mediation date in April 2002 and such mediation concluded without any mutually agreeable basis for settlement having been reached. A trial date was scheduled for November 10, 2003. However, on October 21, 2003 the Court ordered that all matters in this case are stayed pending the resolution of plaintiffs and defendants motions for summary judgment. On March 12, 2004 the court issued a memorandum opinion granting the Veritas entities motion for summary judgment holding that there is no evidence that patents in question are infringed by the Veritas entities. To date the court has not entered a final judgment in the case.
On September 23, 2002, Veritas asserted a counter claim for patent infringement with respect to patent number U.S. 5,812,753 entitled Methods for Initializing or Reconstructing Data Consistency Within an Array of Storage Elements. On November 18, 2003 the court issued an order staying all proceedings in the case until there is a final resolution of the reexamination, requested by the Company on September 23, 2003, of the patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We believe that this claim is without merit and intend to vigorously defend this action. It is not possible at this time to predict either the timing of a final resolution or the reexamination of the patent or the likelihood or range of any potential outcome in the litigation.
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ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS
No matter was submitted to a vote of the Companys security holders during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003.
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANTS COMMON EQUITY AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
Our Common Stock is traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol SOS.
The following table sets forth the range of the high and low sales prices for our Common Stock for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, as reported by the American Stock Exchange.
| FISCAL 2003 |
High |
Low | ||||
| First Quarter |
$ | .62 | $ | .24 | ||
| Second Quarter |
1.08 | .33 | ||||
| Third Quarter |
.85 | .35 | ||||
| Fourth Quarter |
.61 | .32 | ||||
| FISCAL 2002 |
High |
Low | ||||
| First Quarter |
$ | 7.95 | $ | 5.10 | ||
| Second Quarter |
6.49 | 3.00 | ||||
| Third Quarter |
4.09 | .21 | ||||
| Fourth Quarter |
.42 | .17 | ||||
On April 13, 2004, there were 456 record holders of our Common Stock. We believe the actual number of beneficial owners of the Common Stock is in excess of 5,000 holders because many of the shares of our Common Stock are held in custodial or nominee accounts for the benefit of persons other than the record holder.
We have never paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future on our common stock.
During the first quarter of our fiscal year 2004, our common stock traded at prices ranging from a low sales price of $.37 to a high sales price of $.87.
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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The following data, insofar as it relates to the three fiscal years 2001 through 2003 has been derived from the consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere herein, including the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2003 and December 31, 2002, and the related Consolidated Statements of Operations for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2003, and notes thereto. The data, insofar as it relates to the Consolidated Balance Sheet Data as of December 31, 2001, December 31, 2000 and December 31, 1999, and the Consolidated Statements of Operations Data for the fiscal years 2000 and 1999, has been derived from our historical consolidated financial statements for such periods.
| Year ended December 31 |
||||||||||||||||||||
| 2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
1999 |
||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except for per share data) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Statement of Operations Data |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenues: |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Products and services |
$ | 1,045 | $ | 2,372 | $ | 6,548 | $ | 6,506 | $ | 10,526 | ||||||||||
| License fees |
0 | 3,000 | 2,500 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Total revenues |
1,045 | 5,372 | 9,048 | 6,506 | 10,526 | |||||||||||||||
| Costs and expenses: |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Cost of products and services |
1,447 | 4,079 | 5,546 | 6,525 | 6,303 | |||||||||||||||
| Costs of license fees, primarily legal costs |
792 | 3,717 | 2,311 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Research and development |
971 | 2,759 | 4,335 | 1,497 | 1,981 | |||||||||||||||
| Selling and marketing |
530 | 2,778 | 4,408 | 2,262 | 4,099 | |||||||||||||||
| General and administrative |
1,445 | 3,606 | 3,110 | 2,316 | 2,357 | |||||||||||||||
| Amortization of intangibles |
576 | 772 | 2,832 | 836 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Impairment of goodwill |
0 | 14,281 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Impairment of identifiable intangible assets |
0 | 976 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Restructuring costs |
0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||