NOTE 6 - CONVERTIBLE NOTES

On August 24, 2022, the Company issued Senior Convertible Notes (“Convertible Notes”) with an aggregate principal amount of $27,173,913 due February 24, 2024. The holders of the Convertible Notes also received fully vested warrants (the “Note Warrants”) to purchase 51 shares of the Company’s common stock at an initial exercise price of $405,000.00 per share. The conversion and warrant exercise prices were subject to adjustment if the Company declared a stock dividend, stock split or recapitalization. The Company incurred debt issuance costs of $3,316,409 upon issuance of the Convertible Notes, which includes $616,730 for the fair value of the warrants issued to the placement agent of the Convertible Notes as further described in Note 10. These debt issuance costs were amortized as additional interest expense through May 24, 2023 when the Convertible Notes were exchanged as discussed below.

The Company allocated the net proceeds received from the issuance of the Convertible Notes and Note Warrants based on the relative fair values of each resulting in net proceeds of $15,122,345 being allocated to the Convertible Notes and net proceeds of $6,561,247 being allocated to the Note Warrants which was recorded in equity. The Company recorded non-cash interest expense through May 24, 2023 to accrete the allocated value of the Convertible Notes using the effective interest method and an interest rate of 39.6%. Interest expense, including amortization of issuance costs, recorded for the Convertible Notes for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 was zero and $2,913,632, respectively, prior to the recognition of the unamortized discount and issuance costs upon issuance of the additional senior convertible notes noted below.

On May 24, 2023, the Company issued additional Senior Convertible Notes (“New Notes”) with an aggregate principal amount of $4,934,783 due February 24, 2024 to the same investors of the Convertible Notes. The New Notes had an initial conversion price of $457,200.00 per share of common stock, which was adjusted to $135,000.00 upon stockholder approval received on August 3, 2023. The conversion price was also subject to further adjustment if the Company completed an equity or convertible note offering with a price below $135,000.00, or completed a stock split, reverse stock split or recapitalization where the lowest day’s volume weighted average price (“VWAP”) of the Company’s stock price is below $135,000.00 in the five days following the stock split, with a floor price of $0.22 (subject to stockholder approval, which was obtained on August 3, 2023). The conversion price was also subject to further adjustment if the Company completed an equity or convertible note offering with a price below $135,000.00. The New Notes were issued with an original issue discount of 8.8% and did not bear interest unless an event of default had occurred, upon which interest accrued at 10% per annum.

The holders of the New Notes also received fully vested warrants (the “New Warrants”) to purchase 31 shares of the Company’s common stock at an initial exercise price of $196,200.00 per share. The New Warrants expire August 24, 2027.

The Company incurred debt issuance costs of $586,968 upon issuance of the New Notes and New Warrants. The Company amortized these issuance costs as additional interest expense over the remaining term of the New Notes.

Concurrent with the issuance of the New Notes, the Company exchanged the Convertible Notes into two new notes, Series A Notes and Series B Notes both due February 24, 2024 (collectively the “Exchange Notes” and collectively with the New Notes the “May 2023 Notes”). The aggregate principal amount of Series A Notes was $3,690,422 and these were convertible into the Company’s common stock at an initial conversion price of $135,000.00 per share. The aggregate principal amount of the Series B Notes was $23,483,491 and were convertible into the Company’s common stock at an initial conversion price of $196,200.00 which was adjusted to $135,000.00 upon stockholder approval received on August 3, 2023.

In September 2023, the holders of the May 2023 Notes agreed to modify the due date of these notes to January 31, 2025. The Company also executed a security interest to the holders for substantially all of the assets of the Company.

Events of default for the May 2023 Notes were defined in the note agreements and the Company was in compliance with all covenants until the May 2023 Notes were exchanged for Series A Convertible Preferred Stock (“Preferred Stock”) on March 4, 2024 as discussed below.

The fair value of the May 2023 Notes was estimated based on the future cash flows discounted at an interest rate of 14.9%. The May 2023 Notes were recorded at their initial fair values as follows:

The Company estimated the fair value of the conversion features of the New Notes, Exchange Notes, New Warrants and Exchange Warrants as of May 24, 2023, as discussed in Note 8 below.

The Company recognized interest expense of $958,640 and $1,364,993 in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 for the accretion of the discount on the May 2023 Notes during the periods.

The Company also exchanged the 51 Note Warrants with an exercise price of $513,000.00 per share issued with the Convertible Notes in August 2022 for 95 warrants which had an initial exercise price of $196,200.00 per share (the “Exchange Warrants”) and was adjusted to $135,000.00 per share upon stockholder approval received on August 3, 2023. The Exchange Warrants expire August 24, 2027.

The conversion prices of the Exchange Notes, and the exercise prices of the New Warrants and Exchange Warrants (collectively the “May 2023 Warrants”) were subject to further adjustment in the event that the Company issues additional common stock, stock options, warrants or convertible notes with prices below the exercise price in effect at the time of issuance, or completes a stock split, reverse stock split or recapitalization where the lowest day’s VWAP of the Company’s stock price is below the then exercise price in the five days following the stock split with a floor of $0.22 per share.

The Company evaluated the issuance of the New Notes and Exchange Notes and related warrants and determined that the Convertible Notes were extinguished based on the conclusion that the terms of the New Notes and Exchange Notes are substantially different from the Convertible Notes in accordance with ASC 470, Debt. In addition, the Company recognized a loss on the extinguishment of the Convertible Notes based on the carrying value of the Convertible Notes at the transaction date, plus gross proceeds received from the issuance of New Notes and New Warrants, less the fair value of the i) New Notes and conversion option, ii) New Warrants, iii) Exchange Notes and conversion options, and iv) Exchange Warrants. The resulting loss on extinguishment of the Convertible Notes was $22,296,988 (including unamortized issuance costs of $1,330,296) which was recorded in the nine-month period ended September 30, 2023.

The May 2023 Notes contain certain conversion limitations, providing that no conversion may be made if, after giving effect to the conversion, the holder, together with any of its affiliates, would own in excess of 9.99% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock after giving effect to such conversion. The Company had the option to force conversion of the Series A and Series B Notes but the weighted average price of the Company’s common stock did not equal or exceed the amounts specified in the May 2023 Note agreements while these notes were outstanding.

In September 2023, the Company and the holders of the Exchange Warrants entered into a warrant inducement agreement whereby the Exchange Warrant holders agreed to exercise 11 Exchange Warrants at a reduced exercise price of $63,000.00 per share. The Company issued the holders 11 warrants (“Reload Warrants”) with an initial exercise price of $90,000.00 per share. The Reload Warrants are immediately exercisable for unregistered shares of the Company’s common stock and have the same terms as the May 2023 Warrants and expire August 24, 2027. The Company recognized equity issuance costs of $216,855 for the issuance of the Reload Warrants.

The May 2023 Warrants and Reload Warrants contained certain conversion limitations, providing that a holder thereof may not exercise such warrants to the extent that, if after giving effect to such conversion, the holder or any of its affiliates would beneficially own in excess of 4.99% of the outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock immediately after giving effect to such exercise. The May 2023 Warrants and Reload Warrants provide the holders the right to exercise these warrants on a non-cash basis if the Company does not have an effective registration statement for the underlying shares of common stock.

Holders of the May 2023 Notes, the May 2023 Warrants and Reload Warrants did not have voting rights to the extent they did not convert their notes or exercise their warrants.

In September 2023, the Company completed a public offering and sold 8 shares of common stock at $90,000.00 per share. The holders of the May 2023 Notes waived their right to reduce the conversion price to the equity issuance price and agreed to reduce the conversion price to $99,000.00 per share. The exercise price of the May 2023 Warrants was reduced to $90,000.00 per share as a result of the public offering.

On October 13, 2023, the Company completed a 1 for 5 reverse stock split and the lowest day’s VWAP in the five days following the reverse split was $49,284.00 per share and the conversion price of the May 2023 Notes, and the exercise price of the May 2023 Warrants were reduced to $49,284.00 per share effective October 20, 2023. On February 2, 2024, the Company completed a reverse 1 for 45 stock split. As a result, the conversion price of the May 2023 Notes and exercise price of the May 2023 Warrants were subject to adjustment to the lowest day’s VWAP in the five-day period following the reverse split, which was $1,491.68 per share effective February 12, 2024.

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, $7,414,025 of principal of the May 2023 Notes were converted into 4,971 shares of common stock. The Company recognized a loss of $333,544 on the conversion including the write off of $55,490 of unamortized debt issuance costs. The remaining principal of the May 2023 Notes of $24,716,118 was exchanged for 24,698 shares of Series A convertible Preferred Stock with a stated value of $1,000 and an initial conversion price of $1.33. The Company recognized a loss on the exchange of the Convertible Notes for Preferred Stock of $1,314,065, which includes unamortized issuance costs of $182,009, in the nine months ended September 30, 2024.

As a result of the exchange for Preferred Stock, the May 2023 Notes are no longer outstanding, there are no remaining covenants related to the May 2023 Notes that the Company must comply with and the security interest on the assets of the Company has been released by the noteholders. The May 2023 Warrants exercise price was reduced to $1,064.00 as a result of this exchange. See further discussion in Note 10.