BIO-key International
Annual Report 2015

Plain-text annual report

SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION EDGAR FILING BIO KEY INTERNATIONAL INC Form: 10-K Date Filed: 2016-03-30 Corporate Issuer CIK: 1019034 © Copyright 2016, Issuer Direct Corporation. All Right Reserved. Distribution of this document is strictly prohibited, subject to the terms of use. UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2015 Commission File Number 1-13463 BIO-KEY INTERNATIONAL, INC. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) DELAWARE (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) 41-1741861 (IRS Employer Identification Number) 3349 HIGHWAY 138, BUILDING A, SUITE E, WALL, NJ 07719 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code) (732) 359-1100 Registrant’s telephone number, including area code. Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of Each Class Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share Name of Exchange on which Registered None Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒ Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒ 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 ☒ No ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ☒ No ☐ Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.: Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☒ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒ Non-accelerated filer ☐ The aggregate market value of the registrant’s voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was $14,054,160. As of March 28, 2016, the registrant had 66,198,482 shares of common stock outstanding. Documents Incorporated by Reference: None EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I Item 1. Description of Business Item 1A Risk Factors Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Mine Safety Disclosures Properties Legal Proceedings PART II Item 5 Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities Item 7 Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations Item 8 Item 9 Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure Item 9A Controls and Procedures Item 9B Other Information Financial Statements and Supplementary Data PART III Item 10 Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance Item 11 Executive Compensation Item 12 Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters Item 13 Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence Item 14 Principal Accountant Fees and Services Item 15 Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules Signatures 1 8 14 14 14 15 15 16 24 24 24 25 26 30 35 38 39 39 67 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “will,” “may,” “future,” “plan,” “intend” and “expect” and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. Although we believe our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot be sure they will be achieved. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein due to a number of factors. Many of these factors are set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Annual Report and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the general or specific factors that may affect us. It should be recognized that other factors, including general economic factors and business strategies, may be significant, presently or in the future. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 1. DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS PART I BIO-key International, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company,” “BIO-key,” “we,” or “us), was founded in 1993 to develop and market advanced fingerprint biometric technology and related security software solutions. First incorporated as BBG Engineering, the company was renamed SAC Technologies in 1994 and, again, renamed BIO-key International, Inc. in 2002. We develop and market advanced fingerprint biometric identification and identity verification technologies, as well as related identity management and credentialing software solutions. We were pioneers in developing automated, finger identification technology that supplements or compliments other methods of identification and verification, such as personal inspection identification, passwords, tokens, smart cards, ID cards, PKI, credit card, passports, driver’s licenses, OTP or other form of possession or knowledge-based credentialing. Additionally, advanced BIO-key® technology has been, and is, used to improve both the accuracy and speed of competing finger-based biometrics. In 2015, we entered into the fingerprint hardware device business through a strategic relationship with China Goldjoy Group (“CGG”), an entity that is affiliated with two of our directors. We distribute directly to end users our SideSwipe™ and EcoID™ readers which can be used on any laptop, tablet or other device which contains a USB port. For additional information on our strategic relationship with CGG, refer to “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.” and “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note J – Related Party.” We have developed what we believe is the most discriminating and effective commercially available finger-based biometric technology. Our primary focus is in marketing and selling this technology into commercial logical and physical privilege entitlement and access control markets. Our primary market focus includes mobile payments and credentialing, healthcare records and data security, among other things. Our secondary focus includes government markets, large scale identity projects such as voter’s registration, driver’s license, national ID programs, and SIM card registration. We continue to develop advancements in our capabilities, as well as explore potential strategic relationships, including business combinations and acquisitions, which could help us leverage our capability to deliver our solutions. We have built a direct sales force, and additionally, utilize resellers, integrators and partners with substantial experience in selling technology solutions to government and corporate customers in their respective markets. Products Finger-based Biometric Identification and Personal Identity Verification We are a leader in finger-based biometric identification and personal identity verification, as well as authentication-transaction security. Stand-alone, or in partnerships with OEMs, integrators, and solution providers, we provide biometric security solutions to private and public sector customers. We help customers reduce risk by providing the ability to control access to facilities and services, in either the logical or physical domain. Our solutions positively identify individuals and verify, or confirm, their identity before granting access to, among other things, corporate resources, subscribed data and services, web portals, applications, physical locations or assets. We also develop and distribute hardware components, through our strategic relationship with CGG that are used in conjunction with our software. Additionally, we sell third-party hardware components with our software in various configurations required by our customers, as do our partners. Our products are interoperable with all major fingerprint reader and hardware manufacturers, enabling application developers, value added resellers (“VARs”), and channel partners to integrate our fingerprint biometrics into their application, while dramatically reducing maintenance, upgrade and life-cycle costs. Our core technology supports interoperability on over 40 different commercially available fingerprint readers. The technology is also interoperable across Windows and Linux, as well as Apple iOS and Android mobile operating systems. This interoperability is unique in the industry and a key differentiator for our products in the biometric market and, in our opinion, makes our technology more viable than competing technologies and expands the size of the overall market for our products. In November 2015, we entered into a license agreement with CGG pursuant to which we obtained a license to certain software from CGG, known as FingerQ, which is currently being integrating into our core WEB-key® platform and will be used in a number of application areas, including mobile payments and personal identity devices for the Asia Pacific markets. 1 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Our biometric identification technology improves both the accuracy and speed of screening individuals, for identification purposes or for personal identity verification, by extracting unique data from a fingerprint and comparing it to existing similar fingerprint data. The technology has been built to be completely scalable and can handle databases containing millions of fingerprints. We achieve the highest levels of discrimination without requiring any other identifying data (multi-factor) such as a user ID, smart ID cards, or tokens, although our technology can be used in conjunction with such additional factors. Users of our technology have the option of on device or cloud authentication. This flexible authentication option in conjunction with our interoperable capabilities, is another key differentiator of our biometric identification solutions. We support industry standards, such as FIDO, BioAPI, and have received National Institute of Standards and Technology independent laboratory certification of our ability to support Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12 (HSPD-12) and ANSI/INCITS-378 templates, as well as validation of our fingerprint match speed and accuracy in large database environments. Our finger identification algorithm, Vector Segment Technology (VST™), is the core intellectual property behind our full suite of biometric products that include: • • • • Vector Segment Technology SDK (VST )—Our biometric software development kit (“SDK”) that provides developers the ability to incorporate our biometric capabilities into their respective product offerings or infrastructure. VST is available as a low level SDK for incorporation into any application architecture to increase security while not sacrificing convenience. VST runs on Windows and Linux as well as within WEB-key® on iOS and Android systems. Intelligent Image Indexing® —Our biometric identification solution that offers both large-scale one-to-many and one-to-one user identification. This solution enables customers to perform false alias and fast entry checks, including preventing fraudulent access to systems and privileges. Intelligent Image Indexing scales identification capabilities from thousands to millions of users. The solution runs on commercially available hardware making it scalable for any size system. Biometric Service Provider—We provide support for the BioAPI (a standards-based solution meeting worldwide needs) for a compliant interface to applications using biometrics for verification and identification. We enhance the traditional use of BioAPI by adding 64-bit support and other advanced features, supporting identification calls and also providing a single user interface for multiple fingerprint readers. ID Director™—Our Single Sign On (SSO) is a suite of solutions for integration with CA Technologies SiteMinder, Oracle’s Fusion Middleware SSO, IBM Tivoli Access Manager and other solutions, utilizing the power and security of WEB-key. This solution provides a simple to implement, custom authentication scheme for companies looking to enhance authentication. ID Director is designed to add a level of security and convenience to the transaction level of any application. In 2015, Microsoft announced native support for biometrics in the Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Operating platforms as well as Office 2016. With Microsoft Hello any user can replace their PIN or password to access their device without any special software downloads by using our recently introduced finger scanners, SideSwipe and EcoID, which are plug and play compatable with the Microsoft platforms. BIO-key has been the exclusive partner, in particular at the Microsoft “Ignite your Business” Windows 10 and Office 2016 launch events, which has generated a number of leads and opportunities for both our hardware and software offerings. Moving forward, we intend to aggressively pursue these opportunities. Authentication Transaction Security Our authentication-transaction security technology, WEB-key®, provides the ability to conduct identification and identity verification transactions in potentially insecure environments, including the World Wide Web or in off-site cloud environments. WEB-key makes cloud-based biometric user-authentication viable and eliminates technology constraints on online service providers, who are otherwise held dependent on handset provider hardware and software platform decisions. It extends all features and functionalities of the VST algorithm to customers looking to add an enhanced level of security to their thin client and client/server applications. WEB-key is currently supported by both Windows and Linux operating systems. Clients are available on Windows, iOS and Android operating systems. 2 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Intellectual Property Rights We develop and own significant intellectual property and believe that our intellectual property is fundamental to our biometric operation: Patents We own patented technologies and trade secrets developed or acquired by us. In May 2005, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued patent 6,895,104 for our Vector Segment fingerprint technology (VST), BIO-key’s core biometric analysis and identification technology. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on March 4, 2023. On October 3, 2006, we announced that our patent for a biometric authentication security framework had been granted by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The patent No. 7,117,356 was issued to us for a biometric authentication security framework that enhances commercial and civil biometric use. Our authentication security framework protects privacy and security of cloud or network based authentications while also facilitates ease of use of biometric systems. The technology that this patent is based on is the foundation for the authentication security incorporated in our WEB-key product line. WEB-key is a mature enterprise authentication solution that functions in a wide variety of application environments. The solution supports a variety of implementation alternatives including card technologies for “two-factor” authentication and also supports “single-factor” authentication. Partners and customers implementing our WEB-key software to provide convenient and secure user identity include a number of institutions including the Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Computer Associates Site Minder, Oracle Access Manager and many other enterprise and solutions based systems. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on May 20, 2023. On December 26, 2006, we were issued US patent No. 7,155,040 covering our unique image processing technology, which is critical for enhancing information used in the extraction of biometric minutiae. The issued patent protects a critical part of an innovative four-phase image enhancement process developed by us. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on January 29, 2025. On April 15, 2008, we were issued US patent No. 7,359,553 covering our image enhancement and data extraction core algorithm components. The solution protected under this patent provides the capability to quickly and accurately transform a fingerprint image into a computer image that can be analyzed to determine the critical data elements. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on January 3, 2025. On August 19, 2008, we were issued US patent No. 7,415,605 for our “Biometric Identification Network Security” method. The solution protected under this patent provides a defense against hackers and system attacks, while leveraging the industry standard Trusted Platform Module (TPM) specification for encryption key management. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on May 20, 2023. On November 18, 2008, we were issued US patent No. 7,454,624 for our “Match Template Protection within a Biometric Security System” method. The solution protected under this patent limits the scope of enrollment templates usage and also eliminates the need for revocation or encryption processes, which can be expensive and time consuming. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on May 17, 2025. On March 10, 2009, we were issued US patent No. 7,502,938 for our “Trusted Biometric Device” which covers a simple, yet secure method of protecting a user’s biometric information. It covers the transmission of information from the point the information is collected at the biometric reader until the data reaches the computer or device that is authenticating the user’s identity. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on October 25, 2025. On May 26, 2009, we were issued US patent No. 7,539,331 for our “Image Identification System” method for improving the performance and reliability of image analysis within an image identification system. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on March 22, 2022. 3 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. On November 8, 2011, we were issued US Patent No. 8,055,027 for our “Generation of Directional Information in the Context of Image Processing” method for image enhancement and processing. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on October 10, 2027. On July 3, 2012, we were issued US Patent No. 8,214,652 for our “Biometric Identification Network Security”, an expanded method of network and related network authentication security systems utilizing hardware based support for encryption and key management for authentication purposes. With the payment of all maintenance fees, this patent will expire on April 24, 2024. We have also been granted parallel patents to the US Patent portfolio to certain of our patents in many foreign countries offering protection of our intellectual property rights around the world. Licensed Technology In the fourth quarter of 2015, we entered into a license agreement with affiliates of CGG. The license agreement provides for the grant to our subsidiary, BIO-key Hong Kong Limited, of a perpetual, irrevocable, exclusive, worldwide, fully-paid license to all software and documentation regarding the software code, toolkit, electronic libraries and related technology currently known as or offered under the Finger Q name, together with perpetual license under all related patents held by the licensors and any other intellectual property rights owned by the licensors related to the forgoing software. This portfolio includes 16 patents focused on, among other things, mobile payment systems and mobile payment methods based on biometric authentication as well finger print authentication systems and a finger print authentication method based on NFC. The license agreement grants us the exclusive right to reproduce, create derivative works and distribute copies of the FingerQ software and documentation, create new FingerQ related products, and grant sublicenses of the licensed technology to end users. In addition, in the event the licensors make any derivatives or improvement in the FingerQ software or make any product or service that may compete with or which includes functionality similar to the FingerQ technology, they are required to license such derivative, improvement, product or service to us on the terms set forth in the license agreement at no additional charge. The license arrangement also allows us to create new, innovative solutions to address the growing demand for secure mobile transactions. Trademarks We have registered our trademarks “BIO-key”, “True User Identification”, “Intelligent Image Indexing”, “WEB-key”, “SideSwipe” and “EcoID” with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, as well as many foreign countries, protecting our companies name and key technology offering names. Copyrights and trade secrets We take measures to ensure copyright and license protection for our software releases prior to distribution. When possible, the software is licensed in an attempt to ensure that only licensed and activated software functions to its full potential. We also take measures to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets. Markets Identity Management, User Authentication, Privilege Entitlement and Access Control Our products reduce risk of theft, fraud, loss and attack by limiting access to valuable assets, privileges, data, services, networks and places, to only authorized individuals. Conversely, our products enhance the monetary value and/or viability of privileged assets, places and services by ensuring only subscribers and otherwise entitled holders can enjoy full access to their privileges. In effect, our products replace traditional credentialing systems, which utilize a physical or electronic credential document to represent the holder’s privilege entitlement, and access control systems that guard access to such privileges. Examples of such privileges include, but are not limited to: international travel and immigration privileges; employment ID, campus ID and corporate ID privileges; healthcare service privileges; citizen entitlement privileges such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; and bank, credit account and financial transaction privileges such as checking accounts, debit and credit cards, payments, online services and subscription privileges. Examples of access points include doorways, gates, computers, point-of-sale terminals, smart-phones or web-portals and automobiles. In our opinion, the market for advanced user authentication, including fingerprint biometrics, is conceptually enormous, represented by virtually any doorway, gate, computer network or internet end-point like smart-phones, desktops, laptops PCs and tablets, and compounded by the number of individuals privileged to access something guarded by those access points. We believe the market opportunity for our products is massive, global and growing encompassing nearly all privilege entitlement and access control systems. 4 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Historically, our largest market has been access control within highly regulated industries like healthcare. However, we believe the mass adoption of advanced smart-phone and hand-held wireless devices have caused commercial demand for advanced user authentication to emerge as viable. The introduction of smart-phone capabilities, like mobile payments and credentialing, could effectively require biometric user authentication on mobile devices to reduce risks of identity theft, payment fraud and other forms of fraud in the mobile or cellular based World Wide Web. As more services and payment functionalities, like mobile wallets and NFC, migrate to smart-phones, the value and potential risk associated with such systems should grow substantially and drive demand and mass adoption of advanced user authentication technologies, including fingerprint biometrics and our solutions. Upon introducing a series of compact fingerprint readers, we saw an immediate uptick in inquiries from both large commercial companies seeking an alternative to passwords, and from consumers recognizing that they could use SideSwipe or EcoID to replace their Windows password. In October 2015, we established a wholly owned subsidiary in Hong Kong “BIO-key Hong Kong” for purposes of establishing relationships and conducting business is the Asia Pacific Region. Through our new Hong Kong subsidiary, we will staff to support the growing demand for secure identification and authentication in the region. 5 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. We believe there is potential for significant market growth in five key areas: • • • • • Corporate network access control, corporate campuses, computer networks, and applications. Consumer mobile credentialing, including mobile payments, credit and payment card programs, data and application access, and commercial loyalty programs. Demand for BIO-key hardware products from Windows 10 users and Fortune 500 companies. Government services and highly regulated industries including, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Drivers Licenses, Campus and School ID, Passports/Visas. Growth in the Asia Pacific region. Business Model Our business model for 2016 and beyond is focused on the following key areas: Market Drivers: The primary drivers for fingerprint authentication are identity theft, data breaches, and compliance in highly regulated industries such as government, financial services, and healthcare. However, the number one driver might be the world’s dissatisfaction with passwords. Introduced as a way to offer a personal layer of security when the Internet was first launched, and long before the term “hacker” was coined, the password was a great solution to protect access to email accounts and basic internet activities. Yet, none of us could envision that the internet and smart mobile devices would expose us to a new boundary-less world, one that would require a much better understanding of cybersecurity. OEM Customers Highly Regulated Industries Partner Model Education has been an important factor in the growth of the biometric industry. Expanded utilization provides use cases and helps increase awareness. Even as myths about the technology are discussed, eventually, industry leaders educate the public about the facts versus fiction. BIO-key has taken a keen focus on championing biometric technology across all verticals and is viewed as a thought leader in the space. We have been featured in the national media and participate in national and international trade conferences commenting on key topics and issues within the industry We will continue to prioritize securing agreements with OEM customers. The history of success supporting NCR, McKesson and LexisNexis provides an established footprint that we intend to build upon. As OEM customers embed BIO-key solutions within their products, the customer benefits from the enhanced security and workflow. OEM customers ordering patterns are more predictable and OEM customers generally require lower service and support resourcing. Government projects and healthcare, including hospitals, clinics, private practices and blood centers provide a significant opportunity for BIO-key. In healthcare, we anticipate that patient identification will emerge as a highly regulated requirement for all healthcare organizations and we are developing our software to accommodate this need. The financial services industry in the U.S. has been slow to adopt biometric authentication while Asia and Europe have been more receptive to incorporating biometrics. We anticipate that the U.S. market will grow rapidly once the first major institution adopts a biometric solution. We remain committed to a partner sales model. In the Identity and Access Management (IAM) space, we have adjusted our targets to include working with resellers, and are developing a security assertion markup language (SAML) solution for ease of installation purposes. In healthcare, HealthCast and other partners, such as Caradigm and Aventura, identified and sold our solutions to a number of new customers in 2015. Consumer Market We are working with Amazon and developing packaging so that our compact fingerprint readers can be featured and sold through retail outlets directly to consumers. 6 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Microsoft Partnership In November of 2015, we established a partnership with Microsoft initiated by our participation at the “Ignite your Business” Windows 10 – Hello twelve city launch tour. BIO-key was featured as the exclusive biometric technology vendor during the launch, resulting in the accumulation of over 700 inquiries from participants at the events. Hardware Almost immediately after launching SideSwipe, we witnessed an increase in inquiries inspiring us to develop a series of compact readers with different features and form factors. Hardware has played a significant role in increasing the visibility of our company and has become a catalyst for our software. By offering hardware to customers, we offer a more full and complete solution and eliminate the need for us to engage a hardware vendor on certain projects, which can sometimes inhibit the process and margins. The launch of our hardware division was one of the most significant developments in 2015. Research and Development We concentrate our research and development efforts on enhancing the functionality, reliability and integration of our current products as well as developing new and innovative products and solutions. Although we believe that our identification technology is one of the most advanced and discriminating fingerprint technologies available today, the markets in which we compete are characterized by rapid technological change and evolving standards. In order to maintain our position in the market, we will continue to upgrade and refine our existing technologies. We have also licensed mobile platform software from China Goldjoy Group which will be integrated with our core WEB-key offerings and introduced to the Asian markets during 2016. This presents a significant opportunity for us going forward. Products On Demand (POD) Our technology and development team welcomes the opportunity to develop customer specific solutions if they are funded. Our strategy to support POD is to utilize internal resources, outsource support services and strategic partners to satisfy unique customer requirements. Our flexible, nimble business model and interoperable capabilities are key differentiators. Competition In addition to companies that provide existing commonplace methods of restricting access to facilities and logical access points such as pass cards, PIN numbers, passwords, locks and keys, there are numerous companies involved in the development, manufacturing and marketing of fingerprint biometrics products to commercial, government, law enforcement and prison markets. These companies include, but are not limited to, 3M (Cogent), NEC, and MorphoTrak. The majority of sales for automated fingerprint identification products in the market to date have been deployed for government agencies, healthcare facilities, and law enforcement applications. The consumer and commercial markets represent areas of significant growth potential for biometrics, led by the use of mobile devices. The epidemic of security and data breaches reported over the past few years is one of the driving factors for identifying new methods of protecting valuable data. After attempting to create a more sophisticated password or more efficient token or PIN, it has become apparent that each of these methods are easily compromised, and the downside risks are significant. With respect to competing biometrics technologies, each has its strengths and weaknesses and none has emerged as a market leader: • • • • Fingerprint identification is generally viewed as very accurate, inexpensive and non-intrusive and is the dominant biometric in use today and will be for the foreseeable future. Palm Vein scanning is expensive, technique-sensitive, and offers mobility challenges; Iris scanning is viewed as accurate, but the hardware is significantly more expensive; and Facial recognition can have accuracy limitations and is typically highly dependent on ambient lighting conditions, angle of view, and other factors. 7 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Government Regulations We are not currently subject to direct regulation by any government agency, other than regulations generally applicable to businesses or related to specific project requirements. In the event of any international sales, we would be subject to various domestic and foreign laws regulating such exports and export activities. Environmental Regulations As of the date of this report, we have not incurred any material expenses relating to our compliance with federal, state, or local environmental laws and do not expect to incur any material expenses in the foreseeable future. Employees and Consultants As of March 25, 2016, we employed nineteen individuals on a full-time basis as follows: (i) ten in engineering, customer support, research and development; (ii) three in finance and administration; and (iii) six in sales and marketing. We also use the services of four consultants (full-time) who provide engineering and technical services, and one part-time contracts administrator. Additionally, our Hong Kong subsidiary employs two administrative individuals. ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS Set forth below are the risks that we believe are material to our investors. This section contains forward-looking statements. You should refer to the explanation of the qualifications and limitations on forward-looking statements appearing just before our Description of Business section above. Effective February 3, 2015, we implemented a reverse stock split of our outstanding common stock at a ratio of 1-for-2 shares. All share figures and results are reflected on a post-split basis. Business and Financial Risks Based on our lack of sufficient revenue since inception and recurring losses from operations, our auditors have included an explanatory paragraph in their opinion as to the substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Due to, among other factors, our history of losses and limited revenue, our independent auditors have included an explanatory paragraph in their opinion for the year ended December 31, 2015 as to the substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, which contemplate that we will continue to operate as a going concern. Our financial statements do not contain any adjustments that might result if we are unable to continue as a going concern. Since our formation, we have historically not generated significant revenue and have sustained substantial operating losses. As of December 31, 2015, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $59 million. In order to increase revenue, we have developed a direct sales force and anticipate the need to retain additional sales, marketing and technical support personnel and may need to incur substantial expenses. We cannot assure you that we will be able to secure these necessary resources, that a significant market for our technologies will develop, or that we will be able to achieve our targeted revenue. If we are unable to achieve revenue or raise capital sufficient to cover our ongoing operating expenses, we will be required to scale back operations, including marketing and research initiatives, or in the extreme case, discontinue operations. Our biometric technology has yet to gain widespread market acceptance and we do not know how large of a market will develop for our technology. Biometric technology has received only limited market acceptance, particularly in the private sector. Our technology represents a novel security solution and we have not yet generated significant sales. Although recent security concerns relating to identification of individuals and appearance of biometric readers on popular consumer products, including the Apple iPhone, have increased interest in biometrics generally, it remains an undeveloped, evolving market. Biometric based solutions compete with more traditional security methods including keys, cards, personal identification numbers and security personnel. Acceptance of biometrics as an alternative to such traditional methods depends upon a number of factors including: • national or international events which may affect the need for or interest in biometric solutions; • the performance and reliability of biometric solutions; 8 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved.  • marketing efforts and publicity regarding these solutions; • public perception regarding privacy concerns; • costs involved in adopting and integrating biometric solutions; • proposed or enacted legislation related to privacy of information; and • competition from non-biometric technologies that provide more affordable, but less robust, authentication (such as tokens and smart cards). For these reasons, we are uncertain whether our biometric technology will gain widespread acceptance in any commercial markets or that demand will be sufficient to create a market large enough to produce significant revenue or earnings. Our future success depends, in part, upon business customers adopting biometrics generally, and our solution specifically. Biometric technology is a new approach to Internet security, which must be accepted in order for our WEB-key ® solution to generate significant revenue. Our WEB-key authentication initiative represents a new approach to Internet security, which has been adopted on a limited basis by companies that distribute goods, content or software applications over the Internet. The implementation of our WEB-key solution requires the distribution and use of a finger scanning device and integration of database and server side software. Although we believe our solutions provide a higher level of security for information transmitted over the Internet than existing traditional methods, unless business and consumer markets embrace the use of a scanning device and believe the benefits of increased accuracy outweigh implementation costs, our solution will not gain market acceptance. The market for our solutions is still developing and if the biometrics industry adopts standards or a platform different from our standards or platform, our competitive position would be negatively affected. The market for identity solutions is still developing. The evolution of this market may result in the development of different technologies and industry standards that are not compatible with our current solutions, products or technologies. Several organizations set standards for biometrics to be used in identification and documentation. Although we believe that our biometric technologies comply with existing standards, these standards may change and any standards adopted could prove disadvantageous to or incompatible with our business model and current or future solutions, products and services. Our software products may contain defects which will make it more difficult for us to establish and maintain customers. Although we have completed the development of our core biometric technology, it has only been used by a limited number of business customers. Despite extensive testing during development, our software may contain undetected design faults and software errors, or “bugs” that are discovered only after it has been installed and used by a greater number of customers. Any such defect or error in new or existing software or applications could cause delays in delivering our technology or require design modifications. These could adversely affect our competitive position and cause us to lose potential customers or opportunities. Since our technologies are intended to be utilized to secure physical and electronic access, the effect of any such bugs or delays will likely have a detrimental impact on us. In addition, given that biometric technology generally, and our biometric technology specifically, has yet to gain widespread acceptance in the market, any delays would likely have a more detrimental impact on our business than if we were a more established company. In order to generate revenue from our biometric products, we are dependent upon independent original equipment manufacturers, system integrators and application developers, which we do not control. As a result, it may be more difficult to generate sales. We market our technology through licensing arrangements with: • Original equipment manufacturers, system integrators and application developers which develop and market products and applications which can then be sold to end users • Companies which distribute goods, services or software applications over the Internet As a technology licensing company, our success will depend upon the ability of these manufacturers and developers to effectively integrate our technology into products and services which they market and sell. We have no control over these licensees and cannot assure you that they have the financial, marketing or technical resources to successfully develop and distribute products or applications acceptable to end users or generate any meaningful revenue for us. These third parties may also offer the products of our competitors to end users. While we have commenced a significant sales and marketing effort, we have only begun to develop a significant distribution channel and may not have the resources or ability to sustain these efforts or generate any meaningful sales. 9 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. We face intense competition and may not have the financial and human resources necessary to keep up with rapid technological changes, which may result in our technology becoming obsolete. The Internet, facility access control and information security markets are subject to rapid technological change and intense competition. We compete with both established biometric companies and a significant number of startup enterprises as well as providers of more traditional methods of access control. Most of our competitors have substantially greater financial and marketing resources than we do and may independently develop superior technologies, which may result in our technology becoming less competitive or obsolete. We may not be able to keep pace with this change. If we are unable to develop new applications or enhance our existing technology in a timely manner in response to technological changes, we will be unable to compete in our chosen markets. In addition, if one or more other biometric technologies such as voice, face, iris, hand geometry or blood vessel recognition are widely adopted, it would significantly reduce the potential market for our fingerprint identification technology. We intend to introduce our products in Asian markets in 2016. Our financial performance will be subject to risks associated with changes in the value of the U.S. dollar versus local currencies. Our primary exposure to movements in foreign currency exchange rates relates to non-U.S. dollar-denominated sales and operating expenses worldwide. Weakening of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar will adversely affect the U.S. dollar value of our foreign currency-denominated sales and earnings, if any, and could lead to us raising international pricing, potentially reducing the demand for our products. In addition, margins on sales of our products in foreign countries and on sales of products that include components obtained from foreign suppliers could be materially adversely affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. We depend on key employees and members of our management team, including our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Technology Officer, in order to achieve our goals. We cannot assure you that we will be able to retain or attract such persons. Our employment contracts with Michael W. DePasquale, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and Mira LaCous, our Chief Technology Officer, expire annually, and renew automatically for successive one year periods unless notice of non-renewal is provided by the Company. Although the contracts do not prevent them from resigning, they do contain confidentiality and non-compete clauses, which are intended to prevent them from working for a competitor within one year after leaving our Company. Our success depends on our ability to attract, train and retain employees with expertise in developing, marketing and selling software solutions. In order to successfully market our technology, we will need to retain additional engineering, technical support and marketing personnel. The market for such persons remains highly competitive and our limited financial resources will make it more difficult for us to recruit and retain qualified persons. We cannot assure you that the intellectual property protection for our core technology provides a sustainable competitive advantage or barrier to entry against our competitors. Our success and ability to compete is dependent in part upon proprietary rights to our technology. We rely primarily on a combination of patent, copyright and trademark laws, trade secrets and technical measures to protect our propriety rights. We have filed a patent application relating to both the optic technology and biometrics solution components of our technology wherein several claims have been allowed. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued us a series of patents for our Vector Segment fingerprint technology (VST), and our other core biometric analysis and identification technologies. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to adequately protect our technology or other intellectual property from misappropriation in the U.S. and abroad. Any patent issued to us could be challenged, invalidated or circumvented or rights granted thereunder may not provide a competitive advantage to us. Furthermore, patent applications that we file may not result in issuance of a patent or, if a patent is issued, the patent may not be issued in a form that is advantageous to us. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, others may independently develop similar products, duplicate our products or design around our patents and other rights. In addition, it is difficult to monitor compliance with, and enforce, our intellectual property rights on a worldwide basis in a cost-effective manner. In jurisdictions where foreign laws provide less intellectual property protection than afforded in the U.S. and abroad, our technology or other intellectual property may be compromised, and our business would be materially adversely affected. If any of our proprietary rights are misappropriated or we are forced to defend our intellectual property rights, we will have to incur substantial costs. Such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources, including diverting the time and effort of our senior management, and could disrupt our business, as well as have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. We can provide no assurance that we will have the financial resources to oppose any actual or threatened infringement by any third party. Furthermore, any patent or copyrights that we may be granted may be held by a court to infringe on the intellectual property rights of others and subject us to the payment of damage awards. 10 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. We may be subject to claims with respect to the infringement of intellectual property rights of others, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our financial and management resources. Third parties may claim that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights. We may violate the rights of others without our knowledge. We may expose ourselves to additional liability if we agree to indemnify our customers against third party infringement claims. While we know of no basis for any claims of this type, the existence of and ownership of intellectual property can be difficult to verify and we have not made an exhaustive search of all patent filings. Additionally, most patent applications are kept confidential for twelve to eighteen months, or longer, and we would not be aware of potentially conflicting claims that they make. We may become subject to legal proceedings and claims from time to time relating to the intellectual property of others in the ordinary course of our business. If we are found to have violated the intellectual property rights of others, we may be enjoined from using such intellectual property, and we may incur licensing fees or be forced to develop alternative technology or obtain other licenses. In addition, we may incur substantial expenses in defending against these third party infringement claims and be diverted from devoting time to our business and operational issues, regardless of the merits of any such claim. In addition, in the event that we recruit employees from other technology companies, including certain potential competitors, and these employees are used in the development of portions of products which are similar to the development in which they were involved at their former employers, we may become subject to claims that such employees have improperly used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information. If any such claims were to arise in the future, litigation or other dispute resolution procedures might be necessary to retain our ability to offer our current and future services, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our financial and management resources. Successful infringement or licensing claims against us may result in substantial monetary damages, which may materially disrupt the conduct of our business and have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if intellectual property claims brought against us are without merit, they could result in costly and time consuming litigation, and may divert our management and key personnel from operating our business. If we are unable to effectively protect our intellectual property rights on a worldwide basis, we may not be successful in the international expansion of our business. Access to worldwide markets depends in part on the strength of our intellectual property portfolio. There can be no assurance that, as our business expands into new areas, we will be able to independently develop the technology, software or know-how necessary to conduct our business or that we can do so without infringing the intellectual property rights of others. To the extent that we have to rely on licensed technology from others, there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain licenses at all or on terms we consider reasonable. The lack of a necessary license could expose us to claims for damages and/or injunction from third parties, as well as claims for indemnification by our customers in instances where we have a contractual or other legal obligation to indemnify them against damages resulting from infringement claims. With regard to our own intellectual property, we actively enforce and protect our rights. However, there can be no assurance that our efforts will be adequate to prevent the misappropriation or improper use of our protected technology in international markets. We face inherent product liability or other liability risks that could result in large claims against us. We have inherent risk of exposure to product liability and other liability claims resulting from the use of our products, especially to the extent customers may depend on our products in public safety situations that may involve physical harm or even death to individuals, as well as exposure to potential loss or damage to property. Despite quality control systems and inspection, there remains an ever-present risk of an accident resulting from a faulty manufacture or maintenance of products, or an act of an agent outside of our or our supplier’s control. Even if our products perform properly, we may become subject to claims and costly litigation due to the catastrophic nature of the potential injury and loss. A product liability claim, or other legal claims based on theories including personal injury or wrongful death, made against us could adversely affect operations and financial condition. Although we may have insurance to cover product liability claims, the amount of coverage may not be sufficient. 11 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. We expect that we will need to obtain additional financing to execute our business plan over the long-term, which may not be available. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate significant revenue, we may not be able to continue operations. We have historically financed our operations through access to the capital markets by issuing secured and convertible debt securities, convertible preferred stock, common stock, and recently through factoring receivables. We currently require approximately $512,000 per month to conduct our operations, a monthly amount that we have been unable to consistently achieve through revenue generation. During 2015, we generated approximately $5,261,000 of revenue, which is below our average monthly requirements. With the addition of the dividend obligations for the Series A-1 and B-1 shares, our monthly amount will increase by approximately $67,000. With our recent fourth quarter capital raise, we believe our current cash resources are sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next twelve months. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenue to cover operating expenses and fund our business plan, we will need to obtain additional third-party financing to (i) conduct the sales, marketing and technical support necessary to execute our plan to substantially grow operations, increase revenue and serve a significant customer base; and (ii) provide working capital. We may, therefore, need to obtain additional financing through the issuance of debt or equity securities. We cannot assure you that we will be able to secure any such additional financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we cannot obtain such financing, we will not be able to execute our business plan, will be required to reduce operating expenses, and in the extreme case, discontinue operations. We may not achieve sustainable profitability with respect to the biometric component of our business if we are unable to maintain, improve and develop the wireless data services we offer. We believe that our future business prospects depend in part on our ability to maintain and improve our current services and to develop new ones on a timely basis. Our services will have to achieve market acceptance, maintain technological competitiveness, and meet an expanding range of customer requirements. As a result of the complexities inherent in our service offerings, major new wireless data services and service enhancements require long development and testing periods. We may experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful development, introduction or marketing of new services and service enhancements. Additionally, our new services and service enhancements may not achieve market acceptance. If we cannot effectively develop and improve services, we may not be able to recover our fixed costs or otherwise become profitable. If we fail to adequately manage our resources, it could have a severe negative impact on our financial results or stock price. We could be subject to fluctuations in technology spending by existing and potential customers. Accordingly, we will have to actively manage expenses in a rapidly changing economic environment. This could require reducing costs during economic downturns and selectively growing in periods of economic expansion. If we do not properly manage our resources in response to these conditions, our results of operations could be negatively impacted. Our business could be negatively impacted by security threats, including cybersecurity threats, and other disruptions. As a technology company, we face various security threats, including cybersecurity threats to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. Although we utilize various procedures and controls to monitor these threats and mitigate our exposure to such threats, there can be no assurance that these procedures and controls will be sufficient in preventing security threats from materializing. If any of these events were to materialize, they could lead to losses of sensitive information, critical infrastructure, personnel or capabilities, essential to our operations and could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. Cybersecurity attacks in particular are evolving and include but are not limited to, malicious software, attempts to gain unauthorized access to data, and other electronic security breaches that could lead to disruptions in critical systems, unauthorized release of confidential or otherwise protected information and corruption of data. These events could damage our reputation and lead to financial losses from remedial actions, loss of business or potential liability. Risks Related To Our Common Stock We have issued a substantial number of securities that are convertible into shares of our common stock which could result in substantial dilution to the ownership interests of our existing shareholders. As of December 31, 2015, approximately 97,834,247 shares of our common stock were reserved for issuance upon exercise or conversion of outstanding stock options, convertible preferred stock and warrants. Our Series A-1 and Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock and certain warrants, contain “blocker provisions” which prohibit the conversion or exercise of such securities if such conversions would result in the holder of such securities beneficially owing in excess of 9.99% or 4.99%, respectively, of our outstanding shares. Although these provisions may be waived on 61 days written notice, they may have the effect of reducing the number of shares of common stock we are required to issue at any one time. The exercise or conversion of these securities will result in a significant increase in the number of outstanding shares and substantially dilute the ownership interests of our existing stockholders. 12 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The availability of a substantial number of shares of our common stock for public sale may cause the price of our common stock to decline. Our most recent registration statement, which was declared effective in February 2016, covers the public resale of 65,000,000 shares of our common stock, including 30,000,000 shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock issued in our October 2015 and November 2015 private offerings and 35,000,000 shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock issued in our November 2015 private offering. The Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock and Series B-1 Convertible Preferred stock are each subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of our common stock. Although these provisions may be waived on 61 days written notice, they may have the effect of reducing the number of shares of common stock we are required to issue at any one time. Absent such blocker provisions, the shares of common stock being offered by the selling security holders represent approximately 98% of our outstanding shares. In addition, we have effective registration statements covering the public resale of an aggregate of 18,061,172 additional shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of warrants exercisable between $0.30 and $0.50 per share, and 17,581,618 additional shares of issued and outstanding common stock. The availability of these shares for sale to the public, whether or not sales have occurred or are occurring, and the sale of such shares in the public markets could have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock. Such an adverse effect on the market price would make it more difficult for us to raise additional financing through the sale of equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem reasonable or appropriate. Applicable SEC Rules governing the trading of “penny stocks” limits the trading and liquidity of our common stock, which may affect the trading price of our common stock. Our common stock currently trades on the OTCQB. Since our common stock continues to trade below $5.00 per share, our common stock is considered a “penny stock” and is subject to SEC rules and regulations, which impose limitations upon the manner in which our shares can be publicly traded. These regulations require the delivery, prior to any transaction involving a penny stock, of a disclosure schedule explaining the penny stock market and the associated risks. Under these regulations, certain brokers who recommend such securities to persons other than established customers or certain accredited investors must make a special written suitability determination regarding such a purchaser and receive such purchaser’s written agreement to a transaction prior to sale. These regulations have the effect of limiting the trading activity of our common stock and reducing the liquidity of an investment in our common stock. We intend to raise additional funds in the future through issuances of securities and such additional funding may be dilutive to stockholders or impose operational restrictions. We expect that we will need to raise additional capital in the future to help fund our operations through sales of shares of our common stock or securities convertible into shares of our common stock, as well as issuances of debt. Such additional financing may be dilutive to our stockholders, and debt financing, if available, and may involve restrictive covenants which may limit our operating flexibility. If additional capital is raised through the issuance of shares of our common stock or securities convertible into shares of our common stock, the percentage ownership of existing stockholders will be reduced. These stockholders may experience additional dilution in net book value per share and any additional equity securities may have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of the holders of our common stock. Because we do not expect to pay dividends for the foreseeable future, investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase shares of common stock. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. Our Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock accrues dividends at the rate of 6% per annum payable quarterly on April 1, July 1, October 1 and January 1 of each year, payable in cash through October 1, 2017 and thereafter, in cash or kind through the issuance of additional shares of common stock. Our Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock accrues dividends at the rate of 2.5% per annum payable quarterly on April 1, July, 1, October 1, and January 1 of each year payable in cash. Following the payment of dividends on our Series A-1 and B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock, we currently intend to retain future earnings, if any, to finance the expansion of our business. As a result, we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Our payment of any future dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including but not limited to our financial condition, operating results, cash needs, growth plans and the terms of any credit agreements that we may be a party to at the time. Accordingly, investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase shares of our common stock. 13 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Provisions of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and Delaware law may make a contested takeover of our Company more difficult. Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware ("DGCL") could deter a change in our management or render more difficult an attempt to obtain control of us, even if such a proposal is favored by a majority of our stockholders. For example, we are subject to the provisions of the DGCL that prohibit a public Delaware corporation from engaging in a broad range of business combinations with a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns 15% or more of the corporation’s outstanding voting shares (an "interested stockholder") for three years after the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. Our certificate of incorporation also includes undesignated preferred stock, which may enable our board of directors to discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a tender offer, proxy contest, merger or otherwise. Finally, our bylaws include an advance notice procedure for stockholders to nominate directors or submit proposals at a stockholders meeting. Delaware law and our charter may, therefore, inhibit a takeover. The trading price of our common stock may be volatile. The trading price of our shares has from time to time fluctuated widely and in the future may be subject to similar fluctuations. The trading price may be affected by a number of factors including the risk factors set forth in this prospectus as well as our operating results, financial condition, announcements of innovations or new products by us or our competitors, general conditions in the biometrics and access control industries, and other events or factors. We cannot assure you that any of the broker-dealers that currently make a market in our common stock will continue to serve as market makers or have the financial capability to stabilize or support our common stock. A reduction in the number of market makers or the financial capability of any of these market makers could also result in a decrease in the trading volume of and price of our shares. In recent years broad stock market indices, in general, and the securities of technology companies, in particular, have experienced substantial price fluctuations. Such broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the future-trading price of our common stock. ITEM 2. DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY We do not own any real estate. We conduct operations from leased premises in Eagan, Minnesota (5,544 square feet), and Wall, New Jersey (4,517 square feet), as well as in several home-office locations across the country. We are in the process of assessing the required facilities to support our Hong Kong subsidiary. ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS In the normal course of business, we periodically become involved in litigation. We are not a party to any material pending litigation. ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES N/A 14 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES Our common stock currently trades on the OTCQB Marketplace under the symbol “BKYI”. The following table sets forth the range of high and low bid prices per share of our common stock for each of the calendar quarters identified below as reported by the OTCQB Marketplace. These quotations represent inter-dealer prices, without retail mark-up, markdown or commission, and may not represent actual transactions. The quotations for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015. PART II 2015: Quarter ended December 31, 2015 Quarter ended September 30, 2015 Quarter ended June 30, 2015 Quarter ended March 31, 2015 2014: Quarter ended December 31, 2014 Quarter ended September 30, 2014 Quarter ended June 30, 2014 Quarter ended March 31, 2014 Holders $ $ High Low 0.20 $ 0.23 0.22 0.25 High Low 0.28 $ 0.50 0.60 0.56 0.12 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.14 0.20 0.44 0.28 As of March 28, 2016, the number of stockholders of record of our common stock was 144. Dividends We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock to date, and have no intention of paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. The declaration and payment of dividends on our common stock is also subject to the discretion of our Board of Directors and certain limitations imposed under the DGCL. The timing, amount and form of dividends, if any, will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Directors. Equity Compensation Plan Information For information regarding our equity compensation plans, see Item 12 included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers None. 15 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS This Management’s Discussion And Analysis Of Financial Condition And Results Of Operations, and other parts of this Report contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this Report are based on information available to us on the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those set forth in the section captioned “RISK FACTORS” in Item 1A and elsewhere in this Report. The following should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements included elsewhere herein. The following Management’s Discussion And Analysis Of Financial Condition And Results Of Operations (“MD&A”) is intended to help you understand the Company. The MD&A is provided as a supplement to and should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and the accompanying notes. Effective February 3, 2015, we implemented a reverse stock split of our outstanding common stock at a ratio of 1-for-2 shares. All share figures are reflected on a post-split basis. OVERVIEW We develop and market advanced fingerprint biometric identification and identity verification technologies, cryptographic authentication-transaction security technologies, as well as related identity management and credentialing software solutions. We were pioneers in developing automated, finger identification technology that supplements or compliments other methods of identification and verification, such as personal inspection identification, passwords, tokens, smart cards, ID cards, PKI, credit card, passports, driver’s licenses, OTP or other form of possession or knowledge-based credentialing. Advanced BIO-key® technology has been and is used to improve both the accuracy and speed of competing finger-based biometrics. In partnerships with OEMs, integrators, and solution providers, we provide biometric software solutions to private and public sector customers. We provide the ability to positively identify and authenticate individuals before granting access to valuable corporate resources, web portals or applications in seconds. Powered by our patented Vector Segment Technology™ or VST™, WEB-key® and BSP development kits are fingerprint biometric solutions that provide interoperability with all major reader manufacturers, enabling application developers and integrators to integrate fingerprint biometrics into their applications. More recently, we have begun to distribute directly to consumers and commercial users our SideSwipe™ and EcoID™ products. SideSwipe and EcoID are stand-alone fingerprint readers that can be used on any laptop, tablet or other device with a USB port. We have developed what we believe is the most discriminating and effective commercially available finger-based biometric technology. Our primary focus is in marketing and selling this technology into commercial logical and physical privilege entitlement & access control markets. Our primary market focus includes, among others, mobile payments & credentialing, online payments and credentialing, and healthcare record and payment data security. Our secondary focus includes government and educational markets. STRATEGIC OUTLOOK AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Historically, our largest market has been access control within highly regulated industries such as healthcare. However, we believe the mass adoption of advanced smart-phone and hand-held wireless devices have caused commercial demand for advanced user authentication to emerge as viable. The introduction of smart-phone capabilities, like mobile payments and credentialing, could effectively require biometric user authentication on mobile devices to reduce risks of identity theft, payment fraud and other forms of fraud in the mobile or cellular based world wide web. As more services and payment functionalities, such as mobile wallets and near field communication (NFC), migrate to smart-phones, the value and potential risk associated with such systems should grow and drive demand and adoption of advanced user authentication technologies, including fingerprint biometrics and BIO-key solutions. 16 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. As devices with onboard fingerprint sensors continue to deploy to consumers, we expect that third party application developers will demand the ability to authenticate users of their respective applications (app’s) with the onboard fingerprint biometric. We further believe that authentication will occur on the device itself for potentially low-value, and therefore low-risk, use-transactions and that user authentication for high-value transactions will migrate to the application provider’s authentication server, typically located within their supporting technology infrastructure, or Cloud. We have developed our technology to enable, on- device authentication as well as network or cloud-based authentication and believe we may be the only technology vendor capable of providing this flexibility and capability. Our core technology works on over 40 commercially available fingerprint readers, across both Windows and Linux platforms, and Apple iOS and Android mobile operating systems. This interoperability, coupled with the ability to authentic users via the device or cloud, is unique in the industry, provides a key differentiator for us, and in our opinion, makes our technology more viable than competing technologies and expands the size of the overall market for our products. We believe there is potential for significant market growth in five key areas: • • • • • Corporate network access control, including corporate campuses, computer networks and applications; Consumer mobile credentialing, including mobile payments, credit and payment card programs, data and application access, and commercial loyalty programs; Government services and highly regulated industries including, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, drivers licenses, campus and school ID, passports/visas; Direct sales of fingerprint readers to consumers and commercial customers; and Growth in the Asia Pacific region. In the near-term, we expect to grow our business within government services and highly-regulated industries in which we have historically had a strong presence, such as the healthcare industry. We believe that continued heightened security and privacy requirements in these industries will generate increased demand for security solutions, including biometrics. In addition, we expect that the integration of our technology into Windows 10, will accelerate the demand for our computer network log-on solutions and fingerprint readers. Finally, our entry into the Asian market and licensing arrangement with CGG is expected to further expand our business by opening new markets. Over the longer term, we intend to expand our business into the cloud and mobile computing industries. The emergence of cloud computing and mobile computing are primary drivers of commercial and consumer adoption of advanced authentication applications, including biometric and BIO-key authentication capabilities. As the value of assets, services and transactions increases on such networks, we expect that security and user authentication demand should rise proportionately. Our integration partners include major web and network technology providers, who we believe will deliver our cloud-applicable solutions to interested service-providers. These service-providers could include, but are not limited to, financial institutions, web-service providers, consumer payment service providers, credit reporting services, consumer data service providers, healthcare providers and others. Additionally, our integration partners include major technology component providers and OEM manufacturers, who we believe will deliver our device-applicable solutions to interested hardware manufacturers. Such manufacturers could include cellular handset and smartphone manufacturers, tablet manufacturers, laptop and PC manufacturers, among other hardware manufacturers. 17 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS Consolidated Results of Operations Two Year % trend Revenues Services License fees and other Costs and other expenses Cost of services Cost of license fees and other Gross Profit Operating expenses Selling, general and administrative Research, development and engineering Operating loss Other income (deductions) Total other income (deductions) Net loss Revenues and Costs of goods sold Revenues Service License & other Total Revenue Cost of goods sold Service License & other Total COGS Revenues Years ended December 31, 2015 2014 18% 82% 100% 5% 19% 24% 76% 78% 30% 108% -32% -3% -35% 37% 63% 100% 11% 8% 19% 81% 92% 41% 132% -51% 4% -47% 2015 2014 $ Chg % Chg 2015 - 2014 $ $ $ $ 931,394 $ 4,329,831 5,261,225 $ 1,489,820 $ 2,516,036 4,005,856 $ (558,426) 1,813,795 1,255,369 260,436 $ 1,019,085 1,279,521 $ 445,803 $ 302,947 748,750 $ (185,367) 716,138 530,771 -37% 72% 31% -42% 236% 71% Revenue increased $1,255,369 or 31% to $5,261,225 in 2015 as compared to $4,005,856 in 2014. As described more fully below, the increase was primarily due to material growth in our core business of licensing our software and new revenue stream from sales of our fingerprint readers. For the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, service revenues included approximately $679,000 and $627,000, respectively, of recurring maintenance and support revenue, and approximately $252,000 and $863,000, respectively, of non-recurring custom services revenue. Recurring service revenue increased 8% from 2014 to 2015, due to the increase in bundled maintenance agreements to our expanding customer license base. Non-recurring custom services decreased 71% due to a completion of a customer project at the end of 2014. 18 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. For the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, license and other revenue (comprised of third party and BIO-key hardware, and royalty) increased approximately 72% as a result of several contributing factors. Software license revenue increased by approximately $957,000 or 49% during the year ended December 31, 2015 compared to the year ended December 31, 2014. We continued to expand our relationship with NCR, developed new partnerships, continued to ship orders to Aesynt for their continued deployment of our identification technology in their AccuDose® product line, and for ongoing expansion of biometric ID deployments with commercial partners LexisNexis, Educational Biometric Technology, Identimetrics, and a large supplemental order from single international customer. Hardware sales increased by approximately $841,000 (181%), as a result of the introduction of our new low cost fingerprint readers, the establishment of our Hong Kong subsidiary, and expanding healthcare industry deployments. Royalty income, from an OEM agreement for the year ended December 31, 2015 increased 18% to approximately $103,000 from $87,000 during 2014, due to adding a new OEM partner. Costs of goods sold For the year ended December 31, 2015, cost of service decreased approximately $185,000 primarily as a result of costs associated with non-recurring custom services revenue. License and other costs for the year ended December 31, 2015 increased approximately $716,000 due primarily to the increase in hardware revenue, and third party software revenue. Selling, general and administrative 2015 2014 $ Chg % Chg 2015 - 2014 $ 4,121,030 $ 3,670,090 $ 450,940 12% Selling, general and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2015 increased 12% from the year ended December 31, 2014. Increases were driven by expanded sales and marketing personnel expenses, commission expense associated with increased revenue, factoring fees, settlement of litigation and related legal fees, and legal fees associated with the license agreement with CGG. Research, development and engineering 2015 2014 $ Chg % Chg 2015 - 2014 $ 1,556,025 $ 1,626,136 $ (70,111) -4% For the year ended December 31, 2015, research, development and engineering costs decreased 4% as we did not engage temporary outside consulting services for any personnel for specific projects that we had in 2014. 19 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Other income and expense Interest income Interest expense Income tax Gain on derivative liabilities 2015 2014 $ Chg % Chg 2015-2014 $ 14 $ (192,199) (912) 31,142 7 $ — (1,712) 157,253 7 (192,199) 800 (126,111) $ (161,955) $ 155,548 $ (317,503) 100% N/A -47% -80% -204% Interest income for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 consisted of bank interest. Interest expense for the year ended December 31, 2015 represented the amortized original issue discount, the amortized debt discount from the warrant liabilities, and the interest charge under a promissory note we issued in September 2015. During the fourth quarters of 2013 and 2014 and third quarter of 2015, we issued various warrants that contained derivative liabilities. Such derivative liabilities are required to be marked-to-market each reporting period. LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES Operating activities overview Net cash used for operations during the year ended December 31, 2015 was approximately $15,560,000. Items of note were as follows: • • • Negative cash flows from the purchase of software licenses of $12,000,000 and other inventory of approximately $337,000 Negative cash flows related to an increase in accounts receivable, less movements in prepayments, accounts payable, and accrued expenses of approximately $1,804,000, due to working capital management, and Net positive cash flows related to the adjustments for depreciation, amortization, share-based compensation, debt discount, and fair value adjustments of approximately $442,000 Investing activities overview Net cash used for investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2015 was approximately $3,000 and was due to the purchase of capital expenditures. Financing activities overview Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2015 was approximately $19,041,000 and attributable primarily to the following: • Positive cash flows from the issuance of shares of preferred stock and warrants of approximately $19,500,000, net of dividends and financing costs of approximately $459,000. 20 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. CAPITAL RESOURCES Since our inception, our capital needs have been principally met through proceeds from the sale of equity and debt securities. We expect capital expenditures to be less than $100,000 during the next twelve months. We do not currently maintain a line of credit or term loan with any commercial bank or other financial institution. The following sets forth our primary sources of capital during the previous two years: As of December 2011, we entered into a 24-month accounts receivable factoring arrangement with a financial institution (the “Factor”). Pursuant to the terms of this arrangement, from time to time, we sell to the Factor certain of our accounts receivable balances on a non-recourse basis for credit approved accounts. The Factor remits 35% of the foreign and 75% of the accounts receivable balance to us (the “Advance Amount”), with the remaining balance, less fees to be forwarded to the Company once the Factor collects the full accounts receivable balance from the customer. In addition, the Company, from time to time, receives over advances from the factor. Factoring fees range from 2.75% to 21% of the face value of the invoice factored and are determined by the number of days required for collection of the invoice. In April 2012, the terms were updated from monthly to quarterly, and the 24-month arrangement was extended to August 1, 2014. In July of 2014, the arrangement was extended to July 31, 2016. We expect to continue to use this factoring arrangement periodically to assist with our general working capital requirements due to contractual requirements. In November 2014, we issued an aggregate of 7,974,999 shares of our common stock and warrants to purchase an additional 11,962,499 shares of common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $1,595,000 prior to a deduction for expenses. The warrants have a term of five years and an exercise price of $0.30 per share. On September 23, 2015, we issued a promissory note and a warrant to purchase 833,333 shares of common stock for an aggregate principal sum of $250,000. The warrants have a term of five years and have an exercise price of $0.30 per share. The note was repaid in full in October 2015. On October 22 and 29, 2015, we issued 84,500 shares (the “Series A-1 Shares”) of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share, for aggregate gross proceeds of $8,450,000. The Series A-1 Shares are convertible at any time at the option of the holder into shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.30 per share, subject to adjustment for stock dividends, stock splits, combinations, and reclassifications of our capital stock, and subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of our common stock. The Series A-1 Shares accrue dividends at the rate of 6% per annum payable quarterly on April 1, July, 1, October 1, and January 1 of each year payable in cash through October 1, 2017 and thereafter, in cash or kind through the issuance of additional shares of common stock having a value equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the Company’s common stock for the ten (10) days preceding the applicable dividend payment date. On November 11, 2015, we issued 105,000 shares (the “Series B-1 Shares”) of Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $10,500,000, and 5,500 additional shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share, for gross cash proceeds of $550,000. The Series B-1 Shares are convertible at any time at the option of the holder into shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.30 per share, subject to adjustment for stock dividends, stock splits, combinations, and reclassifications of our capital stock, and subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of our common stock. The Series B-1 Shares accrue dividends at the rate of 2.5% per annum payable quarterly on April 1, July, 1, October 1, and January 1 of each year payable in cash. LIQUIDITY OUTLOOK At December 31, 2015, our total cash and cash equivalents were approximately $4,321,000, as compared to approximately $844,000 at December 31, 2014. As discussed above, we have historically financed our operations through access to the capital markets by issuing secured and convertible debt securities, convertible preferred stock, common stock, and through factoring receivables. We currently require approximately $512,000 per month to conduct our operations, a monthly amount that we have been unable to consistently achieve through revenue generation. During 2015, we generated approximately $5,261,000 of revenue, which is below our average monthly requirements. With the addition of the dividend obligations for the Series A-1 and B-1 shares, our monthly amount will increase by approximately $67,000. With our recent fourth quarter capital raise, we believe our current cash resources are sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next twelve months. 21 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenue to fund current operations or meet our goals, we will need to obtain additional third-party financing to (i) conduct the sales, marketing and technical support necessary to execute our plan to substantially grow operations, increase revenue and serve a significant customer base; and (ii) provide working capital. We may, therefore, need to obtain additional financing through the issuance of debt or equity securities. Due to several factors, including our history of losses and limited revenue, our independent auditors have included an explanatory paragraph in their opinion related to our annual financial statements as to the substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Our long-term viability and growth will depend upon the successful commercialization of our technologies and our ability to obtain adequate financing. To the extent that we require such additional financing, no assurance can be given that any form of additional financing will be available on terms acceptable to us, that adequate financing will be obtained to meet our needs, or that such financing would not be dilutive to existing stockholders. If available financing is insufficient or unavailable or we fail to continue to generate sufficient revenue, we may be required to further reduce operating expenses, delay the expansion of operations, be unable to pursue merger or acquisition candidates, or continue as a going concern. OFF-BALANCE SHEET ARRANGEMENTS We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements that have, or are in the opinion of management reasonably likely to have, a current or future effect on our financial condition or results of operations. CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of these financial statements requires that we make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting periods. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ significantly from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. There have been no material changes to these estimates for the periods presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We believe that of our significant accounting policies, which are described in Note A of the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the following accounting policies involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the policies we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our financial condition and results of operations. 1. Revenue Recognition Revenues from software licensing are recognized in accordance with ASC 985-605, “Software Revenue Recognition." Accordingly, revenue from software licensing is recognized when all of the following criteria are met: persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the fee is fixed or determinable, and collectability is probable. The Company intends to enter into arrangements with end users for items which may include software license fees, and services or various combinations thereof. For each arrangement, revenues will be recognized when evidence of an agreement has been documented, the fees are fixed or determinable, collection of fees is probable, delivery of the product has occurred and no other significant obligations remain. Multiple-Element Arrangements: For multiple-element arrangements, the Company applies the residual method in accordance with ASC 985-605. The residual method requires that the portion of the total arrangement fee attributable to the undelivered elements be deferred based on its VSOE of fair value and subsequently recognized as the service is delivered. The difference between the total arrangement fee and the amount deferred for the undelivered elements is recognized as revenue related to the delivered elements, which is generally the software license. VSOE of fair value for all elements in an arrangement is based upon the normal pricing for those products and services when sold separately. VSOE of fair value for support services is additionally determined by the renewal rate in customer contracts. The Company has established VSOE of fair value for support as well as consulting services. License Revenues: Amounts allocated to license revenues are recognized at the time of delivery of the software and all other revenue recognition criteria discussed above have been met. 22 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Revenue from licensing software, which requires significant customization and modification, is recognized using the percentage of completion method, based on the hours of effort incurred by the Company in relation to the total estimated hours to complete. In instances where third party hardware, software or services form a significant portion of a customer’s contract, the Company recognizes revenue for the element of software customization by the percentage of completion method described above. Otherwise, third party hardware, software, and services are recognized upon shipment or acceptance as appropriate. If the Company makes different judgments or utilizes different estimates of the total amount of work expected to be required to customize or modify the software, the timing and revenue recognition, from period to period, and the margins on the project in the reporting period, may differ materially from amounts reported. Anticipated contract losses are recognized as soon as they become known and are estimable. Service Revenues: Revenues from services are comprised of maintenance and consulting and implementation services. Maintenance revenues include providing for unspecified when-and-if available product updates and customer telephone support services, and are recognized ratably over the term of the service period. Consulting services are generally sold on a time-and-materials basis and include a range of services including installation of software and assisting in the design of interfaces to allow the software to operate in customized environments. Services are generally separable from other elements under the arrangement since performance of the services are not essential to the functionality of any other element of the transaction and are described in the contract such that the total price of the arrangement would be expected to vary as the result of the inclusion or exclusion of the services. Revenues from services are generally recognized as the services are performed. The Company provides customers, free of charge or at a minimal cost, testing kits which potential licensing customers may use to test compatibility/acceptance of the Company’s technology with the customer’s intended applications. Costs and other expenses: Includes professional compensation and other direct contract expenses, as well as costs attributable to the support of client service professional staff, depreciation and amortization costs related to assets used in revenue-generating activities, and other costs attributable to serving the Company’s client base. Professional compensation consists of payroll costs and related benefits including stock-based compensation and bonuses. Other direct contract expenses include costs directly attributable to client engagements, such as out-of-pocket costs including travel and subsistence for client service professional staff, costs of hardware and software and costs of subcontractors. The allocation of lease and facilities charges for occupied offices is included in costs of service. The Company accounts for its warranties under the FASB ASC 450 “Contingencies.” The Company generally warrants that its products are free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one year from the date of initial delivery to its customers. The warranty does not cover any losses or damage that occurs as a result of improper installation, misuse or neglect or repair or modification by anyone other than the Company or its authorized repair agent. The Company’s policy is to accrue anticipated warranty costs based upon historical percentages of items returned for repair within one year of the initial sale. The Company’s repair rate of products under warranty has been minimal, and a historical percentage has not been established. The Company’s software license agreements generally include certain provisions for indemnifying customers against liabilities if the Company’s software products infringe upon a third party’s intellectual property rights. The Company has not provided for any reserves for warranty liabilities as it was determined to be immaterial. 2. Impairment or Disposal of Long Lived Assets, including Intangible Assets We review our long-lived assets, including intangible assets subject to amortization, whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of such an asset may not be recoverable. Recoverability of these assets is measured by comparison of their carrying amount to the future undiscounted cash flows the assets are expected to generate. If such assets are considered impaired, the impairment to be recognized is equal to the amount by which the carrying value of the assets exceeds their fair value determined by either a quoted market price, if any, or a value determined by utilizing a discounted cash flow technique. In assessing recoverability, we must make assumptions regarding estimated future cash flows and discount factors. If these estimates or related assumptions change in the future, we may be required to record impairment charges. Intangible assets with determinable lives are amortized over their estimated useful lives, based upon the pattern in which the expected benefits will be realized, or on a straight-line basis, whichever is greater. We did not record any impairment charges in any of the years presented. 3. Research and Development Expenditures Research and development expenses include costs directly attributable to the conduct of research and development programs primarily related to the development of our software products and improving the efficiency and capabilities of our existing software. Such costs include salaries, payroll taxes, employee benefit costs, materials, supplies, depreciation on research equipment, services provided by outside contractors, and the allocable portions of facility costs, such as rent, utilities, insurance, repairs and maintenance, depreciation and general support services. All costs associated with research and development are expensed as incurred. 23 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. 4. Income Taxes The provision for, or benefit from, income taxes includes deferred taxes resulting from the temporary differences in income for financial and tax purposes using the liability method. Such temporary differences result primarily from the differences in the carrying value of assets and liabilities. Future realization of deferred income tax assets requires sufficient taxable income within the carryback, carryforward period available under tax law. The Company evaluates, on a quarterly basis whether, based on all available evidence, if it is probable that the deferred income tax assets are realizable. Valuation allowances are established when it is more likely than not that the tax benefit of the deferred tax asset will not be realized. The evaluation, as prescribed by ASC 740-10, “Income Taxes,” includes the consideration of all available evidence, both positive and negative, regarding historical operating results including recent years with reported losses, the estimated timing of future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, estimated future taxable income exclusive of reversing temporary differences and carryforwards, and potential tax planning strategies which may be employed to prevent an operating loss or tax credit carryforward from expiring unused. Because of the Companies historical performance and estimated future taxable income a full valuation allowance has been established. 5. Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation The Company accounts for share based compensation in accordance with the provisions of ASC 718-10, “Compensation — Stock Compensation,” which requires measurement of compensation cost for all stock awards at fair value on date of grant and recognition of compensation over the service period for awards expected to vest. The majority of our share-based compensation arrangements vest over either a three or four year vesting schedule. The Company expenses its share-based compensation under the ratable method, which treats each vesting tranche as if it were an individual grant. The fair value of stock options is determined using the Black-Scholes valuation model, and requires the input of highly subjective assumptions. These assumptions include estimating the length of time employees will retain their vested stock options before exercising them (the “expected option term”), the estimated volatility of our common stock price over the option’s expected term, the risk-free interest rate over the option’s expected term, and the Company’s expected annual dividend yield. Changes in these subjective assumptions can materially affect the estimate of fair value of stock-based compensation and consequently, the related amount recognized as an expense in the consolidated statements of operations. As required under the accounting rules, we review our valuation assumptions at each grant date and, as a result, are likely to change our valuation assumptions used to value employee stock-based awards granted in future periods. The values derived from using the Black-Scholes model are recognized as expense over the service period, net of estimated forfeitures (the number of individuals that will ultimately not complete their vesting requirements). The estimation of stock awards that will ultimately vest requires significant judgment. We consider many factors when estimating expected forfeitures, including types of awards, employee class, and historical experience. Actual results, and future changes in estimates, may differ substantially from our current estimates. ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA See financial statements appearing at pages 40-66 of this report ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE N/A ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES Disclosure Controls and Procedures Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”), evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2015. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2015, our CEO and CFO concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level. 24 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f). Internal control over financial reporting cannot provide absolute assurance of achieving financial reporting objectives because of its inherent limitations. Internal control over financial reporting is a process that involves human diligence and compliance and is subject to lapses in judgment and breakdowns resulting from human failures. Internal control over financial reporting also can be circumvented by collusion or improper management override. Because of such limitations, there is a risk that material misstatements may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis by internal control over financial reporting. However, these inherent limitations are known features of the financial reporting process. Therefore, it is possible to design into the process safeguards to reduce, though not eliminate, the risk. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our CEO and CFO, we have conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2015, based upon the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2015. As the Company is a smaller reporting company, this annual report does not include an attestation report of the Company’s registered public accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting. Management’s report was not subject to attestation by the Company’s registered public accounting firm pursuant to rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission that permit the company to provide only management’s report in this annual report. Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting No change in our internal control over financial reporting occurred during the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2015 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION None. 25 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PART III The following sets forth certain information about each director, executive officer, and key employee of the Company. AGE POSITIONS HELD 61 Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer 74 Director 63 Director 63 Director 55 Director 52 Director 43 Director 56 Chief Financial Officer 54 Chief Technology Officer 53 Vice President, Chief Scientist 56 Senior Vice President of Global Sales NAME Michael W. DePasquale Charles P. Romeo (a) John Schoenherr (b) Thomas E. Bush, III (a) (c) Thomas Gilley (c) Wong Kwok Fong Yao Jianhui Cecilia Welch Mira K. LaCous Renat Zhdanov James Sullivan (a) Compensation Committee Member (b) Audit Committee Member (c) Nominating Committee Member Directors We believe that our board of directors should be composed of individuals with sophistication and experience in many substantive areas that impact our business. We believe that experience, qualifications, or skills in the following areas are most important: legal/regulatory and government affairs; accounting and finance; design, innovation and engineering; strategic planning; and human resources and development practices; and board practices of other corporations. These areas are in addition to the personal qualifications described in this section. We believe that our current board members possess the professional and personal qualifications necessary for board service, and have highlighted particularly noteworthy attributes for each board member below. The principal occupation and business experience, for at least the past five years, of each current director is as follows: MICHAEL W. DEPASQUALE has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a Director since January 3, 2003, and Chairman of the Board since January 29, 2014. He served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Company from July 2005 to August 2006. Mr. DePasquale brings more than 27 years of executive management, sales and marketing experience to the Company. Prior to joining us, Mr. DePasquale served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Prism eSolutions, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based provider of professional consulting services and online solutions for ISO-9001/14000 certification for customers in manufacturing, healthcare and government markets, since February 2001. From December 1999 through December 2000, Mr. DePasquale served as Group Vice President for WRC Media, a New York-based distributor of supplemental education products and software. From January 1996 until December 1999, Mr. DePasquale served as Senior Vice President of Jostens Learning Corp., a California-based provider of multimedia curriculum. Prior to Jostens, Mr. DePasquale held sales and marketing management positions with McGraw-Hill and Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. DePasquale earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He serves on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of the International Biometrics and Identification Industry Association. Mr. DePasquale has extensive general management experience in the technology sector and has served as a Director for number of non-profit organizations and private companies. CHARLES P. ROMEO has served as a Director since February 28, 2005 and from January 29, 2003 to April 19, 2004. From April 2004 until February 2005, he served as our Vice President of Sales, Public Safety Division. From November 2005 to November 2007, Mr. Romeo served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for UNICOM, a Rhode Island systems integrator. From September 2002 until April 2004, Mr. Romeo was the President and Chief Executive Officer of FreedomBridge Technologies, Inc., a Rhode Island-based consulting firm to technology companies in the homeland security industry specializing in implementing direct and channel selling programs, strategic alliances and partnerships in the law enforcement market. Prior to founding FreedomBridge, Mr. Romeo had a 33 year sales and marketing management career with Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation and Hewlett Packard. During his career, Mr. Romeo served as Vice President of Service Sales for a $500 million business unit, and Director of Public Sector Sales for a $275 million division of Hewlett Packard. Mr. Romeo authored The Sales Manager’s Troubleshooter, Prentice Hall 1998, which was named as one of the “top 10 must reads” by Sales and Marketing Magazine. Mr. Romeo earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Massachusetts and an Executive MBA from Babson College. Mr. Romeo has significant sales and marketing management experience in the infrastructure and computer hardware and software industries. 26 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. JOHN SCHOENHERR has served as a Director since December 30, 2004. Mr. Schoenherr served as Vice President of Corporate Performance Management for Oracle Corporation from 1995 through 2006. Prior to Oracle he served as Senior Vice President of Business Intelligence and Analytics at Information Resources, Inc. Mr. Schoenherr has over 25 years of experience in the area of business intelligence and strategic planning. His career includes a number of product development and management positions. Mr. Schoenherr has extensive product management and information services experience in both the large and small enterprise sectors. THOMAS E. BUSH, III has served as a Director of the Company since January 29, 2014. Since 2009, Mr. Bush has provided business consulting services through his firm, Tom Bush Consulting. Prior to that, Mr. Bush served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for over 33 years. Mr. Bush joined the FBI in September 1975, ultimately becoming the Director of the CJIS division, with over 2,500 employees and a budget of approximately one billion dollars. Mr. Bush is known for providing critical services in support of the criminal justice community, with two significant IT projects; Next Generation Identification and N-Dex, were awarded by CJIS with early increments delivered during his tenure at the FBI. He was the recipient of many awards during his tenure, most notably a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 2007. Mr. Bush's extensive experience in law enforcement, security matters, and the use of biometric technologies in the government sector provides the Board with a unique perspective on security and public sector matters. THOMAS GILLEY has served as a Director of the Company since January 29, 2014. Mr. Gilley is an entrepreneur, hands on technologist for mobile technologies, digital media, internet of things and social computing. Mr. Gilley served at Apple Computer, in the Advance Technology Group and Portable Products Group. Before and after Apple, Mr. Gilley founded several successful companies including PicoStar, a Silicon Valley incubator-technology investment company where he has been CEO since 1996. In New York City Mr. Gilley served as a strategic advisor, investor and technology company founder. Most recently, Mr. Gilley sold his on-demand web media company to Vignette and acted as CTO throughout the transaction and through the company's ultimate acquisition by OpenText. Mr. Gilley’s substantial experience in starting, operating and financing technology companies provides the Board with a deep knowledge of the sales and development cycles applicable to growth businesses in the technology industry WONG KWOK FONG has served as a Director of the Company since December 4, 2015. He is the co-founder of China Goldjoy Group (previously World Wide Touch Technology Holdings Limited), a Company listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. From 1997 until August 2015, Mr. Wong served as the Chairman of China Goldjoy Group and currently serves as its Chief Technology Officer. During this time, Mr. Wong played a significant role in the substantial growth of the business. Mr. Wong brings over 14 years of senior management experience in manufacturing, supply chain, and marketing functions in the electronics and technology industries, including establishing manufacturing plants in Hong Kong and China, and building an extensive network in the electronics and technology industries. Mr. Wong’s substantial experience in the technology industry, including biometrics and payment systems, and serving the Asian markets, broadens and strengthens the Board’s collective qualifications, skills, and experience. YAO JIANHUI has served as a Director of the Company since December 4, 2015. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of the China Goldjoy Group Ltd., a Company listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, since August 2015. Since June 2006, Mr. Yao has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Baoneng Holding (China) Co. Ltd., a company principally engaged in property development. From July 2010 to October 2014, Mr. Yao was the General Manager and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Baocheng Investment Co. Ltd., a company listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange principally engaged in the manufacturing of cables as well as the hotel and trading business. Mr. Yao has held senior management positions with a number of enterprises and listed companies across a wide range of industries including food, construction materials, real estate, commerce, agriculture and forestry, logistics, technology and finance. Mr. Yao’s extensive industry experience, particularly in serving the Asian markets, further broadens and strengthens the Board’s collective qualifications, skills, and experience. Executive Officers CECILIA WELCH has served as our Chief Financial Officer since December 21, 2009. Ms. Welch joined us in 2007 as our Corporate Controller. Prior to joining us, from January 2006 to December 2006, she was the Controller for Savaje Technologies (acquired by Sun Microsystems), a developer of advanced mobile telephone software. From October 2004 to January 2006, she was Controller for Crystal Systems, a manufacturer of sapphire crystals used for industrial, semiconductor, defense and medical applications. From December 1988 to July 2004, she was the Controller for ATN Microwave (acquired by Agilent Technologies), a manufacturer of automated test equipment. Ms. Welch has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Franklin Pierce University. 27 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. MIRA K. LACOUS has served as Chief Technology Officer of the Company since March 13, 2014. Prior to her appointment as Chief Technology Officer, she served as our Senior Vice President of Technology & Development since 2012, and as our Vice President of Technology and Development since 2000. Ms. LaCous has over 28 years of product/project management, solution architecture, software development, team leadership and customer relations experience, with a background that includes successfully bringing numerous technologies to market, including automated voice response systems, automated building control systems, software piracy protection, intranet training materials and testing, page layout and design software, image scanning software and systems, biometric security, biometric algorithms and more. Ms. LaCous is also the author of six US patented technologies, multiple international patents, and other patent pending solutions. She has been an officer or director of two other companies; National Computer Systems (NCS), and TEL-Line Systems. Ms. LaCous has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from North Dakota State University. Ms. LaCous also served on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Sinfonia, a not-for-profit arts and education organization, as well as its chairperson for two years. Key Employees RENAT Z. ZHDANOV has served as our Chief Scientist since November 2001. He has over fifteen years of academic experience in various fields of mathematics and physics; fifteen years of image processing, pattern recognition, and big data analysis algorithm development experience and more than ten years of software development experience ranging from database programming to statistical and analytical programming. Dr. Zhdanov is a recognized expert in mathematical physics and is the author of two books and more than 130 papers published in leading mathematics and physics journals. Before joining us, he worked as Chief Mathematician and Visiting Scientist in universities in Ukraine, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and Spain. Dr. Zhdanov has two PhD degrees in Mathematical Physics and Differential Equations from the Institute of Mathematics in Kiev, Ukraine. He serves as the member of the Editorial Board of the “Journal of Applied Mathematics”. JAMES SULLIVAN has served as our Senior Vice President of Global Sales since August 2015, and is a recognized expert in biometric authentication for consumer and mobile applications. In over 10 years at BIO-key, Mr. Sullivan has directly worked with dozens of BIO-key’s customers, including AT&T, LexisNexis, NCR and McKesson on large-scale biometric-centered identity management projects that interface daily with millions of corporate and consumer users. Mr. Sullivan holds a Computer Science degree from Brown University, and has 24 years of experience in IT projects and implementation, 14 of them directly working with identity management solutions at BIO-key, Computer Associates, Platinum Technology, and Memco Software. Directors’ Terms of Office Mr. DePasquale was initially elected as a director in 2003, and was re-elected in 2004. Mr. Schoenherr was initially elected as a director in 2004. Mr. Romeo was initially elected as a director in 2005. Mr. Bush and Mr. Gilley were initially appointed as directors in 2014. Mr. Wong and Mr. Yao were initially appointed as directors in 2015. Each such director was elected to serve until the Company’s next annual meeting or until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified in accordance with the By-laws of the Company. Audit Committee The Audit Committee is comprised solely of John Schoenherr. The Board has determined that Mr. Schoenherr is an “audit committee financial expert” under the applicable rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, the Audit Committee has the ability on its own to retain independent accountants or consultants whenever it deems appropriate. Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance Section 16(a) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), requires the Company’s officers and directors and persons who own more than ten percent (10%) of the Company’s Common Stock to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) initial reports of ownership and reports of changes in ownership of the Company’s Common Stock. Such officers, directors and ten percent (10%) stockholders are also required by applicable SEC rules to furnish the Company with copies of all forms filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act. Based solely on its review of the copies of such forms received by it, or written representations from such persons that no other reports were required for such persons, the Company believes that during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, all Section 16(a) filing requirements applicable to the Company’s officers, directors and ten percent (10%) stockholders were satisfied in a timely fashion, except for the late filing of the following forms: • • • • • • Form 4 by Mr. Bush with respect to the issuance of common shares in payment of board fees on November 9, 2015 Form 4 by Mr. Gilley with respect to the issuance of common shares in payment of board fees on November 9, 2015 Form 4 by Mr. Romeo with respect to the issuance of common shares in payment of board fees on November 9, 2015 Form 4 by Mr. Schoenherr with respect to the issuance of common shares in payment of board fees on November 9, 2015 Form 4 by Mr. Gilley with respect to a private acquisition of common shares on November 19, 2015 Form 3 by Mr. Yao in connection with his appointment to the board of directors. 28 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Code of Ethics We have adopted a Code of Ethics that applies to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller, or persons performing similar functions. Our Code of Ethics is designed to deter wrongdoing and promote: (i) honest and ethical conduct, including the ethical handling of actual or apparent conflicts of interest between personal and professional relationships; (ii) full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable disclosure in reports and documents that we file with, or submit to, the SEC and in our other public communications; (iii) compliance with applicable governmental laws, rules, and regulations; (iv) the prompt internal reporting of violations of the code to an appropriate person or persons identified in the code; and (v) accountability for adherence to the code. The Company intends to disclose amendments or waivers of the Code of Ethics on its website within four business days. Any person may obtain a copy of our Code of Ethics free of charge by sending a written request for such to the attention of the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, 3349 Highway 138, Building A Suite E, Wall, NJ 07719. Internet Address and SEC Reports We maintain a website with the address www.BIO-key.com. We are not including the information contained on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the SEC. Our SEC filings are also available over the Internet at the SEC’s website www.sec.gov. Members of the public may read and copy any materials the Company files with the SEC at the SEC’s public reference room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. Information on the operation of the public reference room is available by calling the SEC on 1-800-SEC-0330. 29 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION The following table sets forth a summary of the compensation paid to or accrued by our chief executive officer (principal executive officer) and the two most highly compensated executive officers other than the principal executive officer, who were serving as executive officers at the end of December 31, 2015, for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014: SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE Name Michael W. DePasquale Chief Executive Officer Mira K. LaCous Chief Technology Officer (2) Cecilia Welch Chief Financial Officer Fiscal Year Salary ($) Option Awards ($) All Other Compensation ($) Total ($) 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 250,000 250,000 35,650 (1) 82,300 (1) 202,000 192,903 14,250 (1) 49,380 (1) 144,000 144,000 14,260 (1) 49,380 (1) 739 739 642 545 532 432 286,389 333,039 216,892 242,828 158,792 193,812 (1) The aggregate grant date fair value of the option awards was estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, with the assumptions listed in Note A to the Company’s financial statements. The amount shown in this column represents the grant date fair value calculated under ASC 718. (2) Ms. LaCous was appointed as our Chief Technology Officer on March 31, 2014. Prior to her appointment as our Chief Technology Officer, she served as our Vice President of Technology & Development. Narrative Disclosure to Summary Compensation Table Compensation for BIO-key’s executives is comprised of three main components: base salary, annual performance-based cash bonus, and long-term equity awards. We do not target a specific weighting of these three components or use a prescribed formula to establish pay levels. Rather, the board of directors and compensation committee considers changes in the business, external market factors and our financial position each year when determining pay levels and allocating between long-term and current compensation for the named executive officers. Cash compensation is comprised of base salary and an annual performance-based cash bonus opportunity. The committee generally seeks to set a named executive officer’s targeted total cash compensation opportunity within a range that is the average of the applicable peer company and/or general industry compensation survey data, adjusted as appropriate for individual performance and internal pay equity and labor market conditions. Due to limited cash resources, we did not pay any cash bonuses over the past two years. In setting cash compensation levels, we favor a balance in which base salaries are generally targeted at slightly below the peer average and a bonus opportunity that is targeted at slightly above the average. The committee believes that this higher emphasis on performance-based cash bonuses places an appropriate linkage between a named executive officer’s pay, his or her individual performance and the achievement of specific business goals by placing a higher proportion of annual cash compensation at risk, thereby aligning executive opportunity with the interests of stockholders. We include an equity component as part of our compensation package because we believe that equity-based compensation aligns the long-term interests of our named executive officers with those of stockholders. These cash and equity compensation components of pay are supplemented by various benefit plans that provide health, life, accident, disability and severance benefits, most of which are the same as the benefits provided to all of our US based employees. 30 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Employment Agreements On March 26, 2010, the Company entered into an employment agreement, effective as of March 25, 2010, with Michael W. DePasquale to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company until March 24, 2011. The agreement automatically renews for subsequent one-year terms, unless the employment relationship is terminated by either party, or modified in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Agreement. Under the Agreement, Mr. DePasquale will be paid an annual base salary of $250,000, subject to adjustment by the Board or Compensation Committee. In addition to the Base Salary, a “Performance Bonus” may be awarded to Mr. DePasquale on the basis of the Company achieving certain corporate and strategic performance goals, as determined by the Board in its sole discretion. The employment agreement contains standard and customary confidentiality, non-solicitation and “work made for hire” provisions as well as a covenant not to compete which prohibits Mr. DePasquale from doing business with any current or prospective customer of the Company or engaging in a business competitive with that of the Company during the term of his employment and for the one year period thereafter. This agreement also contains a number of termination and change in control provisions as described in “Termination and Change in Control Arrangements” in this Item. On March 13, 2014, in connection with her appointment as Chief Technology Officer, the Company amended and restated Ms. LaCous’ employment agreement to increase Ms. LaCous’ annual base salary to $202,000. The employment agreement contains standard and customary confidentiality, technical invention provisions, as well as a covenant not to compete, which prohibits Ms. LaCous from doing business with any current or prospective customer of the Company or engaging in a business competitive with that of the Company during the term of her employment and for the one year period thereafter. This agreement also contains a number of termination provisions as described in “Termination and Change in Control Arrangements” in this Item. On May 15, 2013, the Company entered into an employment agreement with Cecilia Welch to serve as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company until May 2014. The agreement automatically renews for subsequent one-year terms, unless the employment relationship is terminated by either party, or modified in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement. The employment agreement contains standard and customary confidentiality, technical invention provisions, as well as a covenant not to compete, which prohibits Ms. Welch from doing business with any current or prospective customer of the Company or engaging in a business competitive with that of the Company during the term of her employment and for the one year period thereafter. This agreement also contains a number of termination provisions as described in “Termination and Change in Control Arrangements” in this Item. Stock Option Grants In the event of any change in the outstanding shares of our common stock by reason of a stock dividend, stock split, combination of shares, recapitalization, merger, consolidation, transfer of assets, reorganization, conversion or what the board deems to be similar circumstances, the number and kind of shares subject to outstanding options, and the exercise price of such options shall be appropriately adjusted in a manner to be determined in the sole discretion of the board. Furthermore, these option agreements contain a change of control provision as described in “Termination Arrangements” in this Item. 31 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. OUTSTANDING EQUITY AWARDS AT FISCAL YEAR END DECEMBER 31, 2015 The following table sets forth for each named executive officer, information regarding outstanding equity awards as at December 31, 2015. The option awards and per share amounts for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015. Name Michael W. DePasquale Mira LaCous Cecilia Welch Number of securities underlying unexercised options exercisable (#) Number of securities underlying unexercised options unexercisable (#) Option Awards Option exercise price ($) Option expiration date 250,000 333,333 83,333 — 170,000 37,500 41,667 50,000 — 75,000 50,000 50,000 — — 166,667 (1) 166,667 (2) 250,000 (3) — — 20,833 (1) 100,000 (2) 100,000 (3) — 25,000 (1) 100,000 (2) 100,000 (3) 0.174 0.348 0.410 0.180 0.920 0.280 0.348 0.410 0.180 0.280 0.348 0.410 0.180 2/27/2016 3/27/2020 3/13/2021 8/12/2022 1/7/2017 5/11/2018 3/27/2020 3/13/2021 8/12/2022 5/11/2018 3/27/2020 3/13/2021 8/12/2022 (1) (2) (3) The options vest equally in three annual installments commencing March 27, 2014 The options vest equally in three annual installments commencing March 14, 2015 The options vest equally in three annual installments commencing August 13, 2016 Narrative Disclosure to Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year End Table The following are the material terms of each agreement, contract, plan or arrangement that provide for payments to one or more of our named executive officers at, following or pursuant to their resignation, retirement or termination, or in connection with a change in control of the Company. Termination Arrangements Our employment agreement with Mr. DePasquale automatically renews for subsequent one-year terms, unless the employment relationship is terminated by either party, or modified in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Agreement. We may terminate the Agreement at any time with or without cause. In the event of termination by us without cause, we will continue to pay Mr. DePasquale his then current base salary for the greater of nine months from the date of such termination or the number of months remaining until the end of the term of the Agreement. We may terminate our employment agreement with Ms. LaCous at any time with or without cause. In the event of termination by us without cause, we will continue to pay Ms. LaCous her then current base salary for nine months from the date of such termination. Our employment agreement with Ms. Welch automatically renews for subsequent one-year terms, unless the employment relationship is terminated by either party, or modified in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Agreement. We may terminate our employment agreement with Ms. Welch at any time with or without cause. In the event of termination by us without cause, we will continue to pay Ms. Welch her then current base salary for the greater of six months from the date of such termination or the number of months remaining until the end of the term of the Agreement. 32 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Change in Control Provisions Awards under the Company’s 2015 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2015 Plan”) may be subject to acceleration of vesting and exercisability upon or after a “Change in Control” as may be provided in the award agreement for such award but in the absence of such provision, no such acceleration shall occur. A Change in Control under the 2015 Plan generally means (i) the acquisition by a person or entity of more than 50% of our combined voting power other than by merger, consolidation or similar transaction; (ii) a consummated merger, consolidation or similar transaction immediately after which our stockholders cease to own more than 50% of the combined voting power of the surviving entity; (iii) a complete dissolution or liquidation of the company, except for a liquidation into a parent corporation; (iv) a consummated sale, lease or exclusive license or other disposition of all or substantially of our consolidated assets; or (v) when a majority of our board of directors becomes composed of individuals whose nomination, appointment, or election was not approved by a majority of our board members or their approved successors. As of the date of this report, no awards have been issued under the 2015 Plan. The Company’s 1999 Stock Option Plan and 2004 Stock Incentive Plan (the “1999 Plan” and together with the 2004 Plan, the “Plans”) provide for the acceleration of the vesting of unvested options upon a “Change in Control” of the Company. A Change in Control is defined in the Plans to include (i) a sale or transfer of substantially all of the Company’s assets; (ii) the dissolution or liquidation of the Company; (iii) a merger or consolidation to which the Company is a party and after which the prior shareholders of the Company hold less than 50% of the combined voting power of the surviving corporation’s outstanding securities; (iv) the incumbent directors cease to constitute at least a majority of the Board of Directors; or (v) a change in control of the Company which would otherwise be reportable under Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. In the event of a “Change In Control” each Plan provides for the immediate vesting of all options issued thereunder. The 1999 Plan provides for the Company to deliver written notice to each optionee under the 1999 Plan fifteen (15) days prior to the occurrence of a Change in Control during which all options issued under the 1999 Plan may be exercised. Thereafter, all options issued under the 1999 Plan which are neither assumed nor substituted in connection with such transaction, automatically expire unless otherwise determined by the Board. The 2004 Plan enables the Board to provide that all outstanding options be assumed, or equivalent options be substituted by the acquiring or succeeding corporation upon the occurrence of a “Reorganization Event” as defined. If such Reorganization Event also constitutes a Change In Control, then such assumed or substituted options shall be immediately exercisable in full. If the acquiring or succeeding corporation does not agree to assume, or substitute for such options, then the Board, upon written notice to the Participants, may provide that all unexercised options become exercisable in full as of a specified time prior to the Reorganization Event and terminate prior to the consummation of the Reorganization Event. Alternatively, if under the terms and conditions of the Reorganization Event, holders of common stock will receive a cash payment for their shares, then the Board may provide that all Participants receive a cash payment equal to the difference between the Acquisition Price and the Option Price multiplied by the number of options held by such Participants. Options issued to executive officers outside of the Plans contain change in control provisions substantially similar to those contained in the 1999 Plan. Our employment agreement with Mr. DePasquale contains a change in control provision that is triggered if Mr. DePasquale is not offered continued employment with us or any successor, or within five years following such Change of Control, we or any successor terminates Mr. DePasquale’s employment without cause. If this occurs, then we will pay Mr. DePasquale his base salary and benefits earned but unpaid through the date of termination, and any prorated bonus earned during the then current bonus year, plus two times his then current base salary. 33 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The following table sets forth for each director, information regarding their compensation for the year ended December 31, 2015: DIRECTOR COMPENSATION FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2015 Name (1) Thomas E. Bush, III Thomas Gilley Charles P. Romeo John Schoenherr Barbara Rivera (4) Wong Kwok Fong (Kelvin) (5) Yau Jianhui (5) Fees earned or paid in cash ($) Stock Awards ($) (2) Option Awards ($) (3) Total ($) — 3,000 — 3,000 3,000 — — 4,000 5,000 3,000 5,000 — — — 3,565 3,565 3,565 3,565 — — — 7,565 11,565 6,565 11,565 3,000 — — (1) Mr. DePasquale has been omitted from the above table because he does not receive any additional compensation for serving on our Board of Directors. (2) The aggregate fair value of the common stock issued was calculated based on the closing price of our common stock on the date of issuance. (3) The aggregate grant date fair value of the option awards was estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, with the assumptions listed in Note A to the Company’s financial statements. The amount shown in this column represents the grant date fair value calculated under ASC 718 (4) Ms. Rivera resigned from the Company’s Board of Directors on July 15, 2015. (5) Appointed effective December 4, 2015. Did not receive any fees for the year ended December 31, 2015. Narrative Disclosure to Director Compensation Table During 2014, the Company had a policy to pay to each non-employee director $3,000 per board meeting and $1,000 per telephonic board meeting attended and to make an annual grant of options in the discretion of the Board upon recommendation of the Compensation Committee. In August 2015, the Company modified its director compensation policy such that fees for attendance at regularly quarterly board meetings held during the first three quarters of each fiscal year are paid through the issuance of shares of common stock and payment for the last meeting of the year is paid in cash or, at the option of the director, in shares of common stock. In 2015, we granted to four of our non-employee directors an option to purchase 25,000 shares of common stock. The options vest in three equal annual installments and expire seven years after the date of grant. We reimburse each of our non-employee directors for their reasonable expenses incurred in connection with attending meetings of the board of directors and related committees. 34 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS The following table sets forth, as of March 28, 2016 information with respect to the securities holdings of all persons which the Company, pursuant to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has reason to believe may be deemed the beneficial owners of more than five percent (5%) of the Company’s outstanding common stock. The following table also sets forth, as of such date, the beneficial ownership of the Company’s common stock by all officers and directors, individually and as a group. Unless otherwise indicated, the address of each person listed below is c/o BIO-key International, Inc., 3349 Highway 138, Building A, Suite E, Wall, NJ 07719. The share amounts reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015 Name and Address of Beneficial Owner Michael W. DePasquale Mira LaCous Cecilia Welch John Schoenherr Thomas Gilley Charles P. Romeo Thomas E. Bush, III Wong Kwok Fong Flat C, 27/F, Block 5 Grand Pacific Views Siu Lam, Hong Kong N7 Yao Jianhui Suites 2601-2, 26/F Tower 2, Nina Tower 8 Yeung UK Road Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong TWTL 353 Perkins Capital Management Inc. 730 Lake St. E Wayzata, MN 55391 Giant Leap International, Ltd. Cricket Square, Hutchins Drive P.O. Box 2681 Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands KY7-1111 Micron Technology Development Limited 5/F., SPA Centre, 53-55 Lockhart Road Wanchai, Hong Kong 999077 Amount and Nature of Beneficial Ownership(1) Percentage of Class(1) 1,024,998 (2) 403,333 (3) 283,332 (4) 155,555 (5) 132,054 (6) 106,944 (7) 74,999 (8) 7,262,763 (9) 18,750 (10) 4,625,000 (11) 7,262,763 (12) 7,262,763 (12) 1.6 * * * * * * 9.9 - 7.0 9.9 9.9 All officers and directors as a group (9) persons 9,462,728 14.3% * Less than 1% (1) The securities “beneficially owned” by an individual are determined in accordance with the definition of “beneficial ownership” set forth in the regulations promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and, accordingly, may include securities owned by or for, among others, the spouse and/or minor children of an individual and any other relative who has the same home as such individual, as well as, other securities as to which the individual has or shares voting or investment power or which each person has the right to acquire within 60 days through the exercise of options or otherwise. Beneficial ownership may be disclaimed as to certain of the securities. This table has been prepared based on 66,198,482 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 28, 2016. (2) Includes 999,998 issuable on exercise of options and 25,000 shares of common stock. Does not include 250,002 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. (3) Consists of shares issuable upon exercise of options. Does not include 116,667 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. (4) Consists of shares issuable upon exercise of options. Does not include 116,668 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. 35 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. (5) (6) (7) (8) Includes 108,333 issuable on exercise of options and 47,222 shares of common stock. Does not include 29,167 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. Includes 33,332 issuable on exercise of options and 98,722 shares of common stock. Does not include 29,168 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. Includes 83,333 issuable on exercise of options and 23,611 shares of common stock. Does not include 29,167 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. Includes 33,332 issuable on exercise of options and 41,667 shares of common stock. Does not include 29,168 shares issuable upon exercise of options subject to vesting. (9) Consists of shares issuable upon conversion of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock and 18,750 shares of common stock. (10) Does not include 7,262,673 shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock owned of record by Giant Leap International, Ltd. Also does not include 1,066,500 shares of common stock owed of record by China Goldjoy Limited, the parent company of Giant Leap International, Ltd. As the Chairman of the board of directors of China Goldjoy Limited, Mr. Yao shares voting and dispositive power over these shares. (11) Based on a Schedule 13G/A filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on February 4, 2016, Richard W. Perkins has sole voting and dispositive power with respect to the shares. Includes 2,125,000 shares issuable upon exercise of warrants. (12) Consists of shares issuable upon conversion of Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock. The following table sets forth, as of December 31, 2015, information with respect to securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans. The shares and per share amounts reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015 EQUITY COMPENSATION PLAN INFORMATION Number of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants and rights (a) Weighted- average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants and rights (b) Number of securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans (excluding securities reflected in column (a)) (c) Equity compensation plans approved by security holders Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders Total — 4,378,833 $ 4,378,833 $ — 0.32 0.32 8,000,000 — 8,000,000 The Company’s 1999 Stock Option Plan (the “1999 Plan”) was adopted by the Board of Directors of the Company on or about August 31, 1999. The material terms of the 1999 Plan are summarized below. The 1999 Plan is currently administered by the Board of Directors of the Company (the “Plan Administrator”). The Plan Administrator is authorized to construe the 1999 Plan and any option issued under the 1999 Plan, select the persons to whom options may be granted, and determine the number of shares to be covered by any option, the exercise price, vesting schedule and other material terms of such option. Under the 1999 Plan 1,000,000 shares of common stock were reserved for issuance to officers, employees, directors and consultants of the Company at exercise prices not less than 85% of the last sale price of the Company’s common stock as reported on the OTC Bulletin Board on the date of grant. Options have terms of not more than 10 years from the date of grant, are subject to vesting as determined by the Plan Administrator and are not transferable without the permission of the Company except by will or the laws of descent and distribution or pursuant to a domestic relations order. Options terminate three (3) months after termination of employment or other association with the Company or one (1) year after termination due to disability, death or retirement. In the event that termination of employment or association is for a cause, as that term is defined in the 1999 Plan, options terminate immediately upon such termination. The Plan Administrator has the discretion to extend options for up to three years from the date of termination or disassociation with the Company. 36 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The 1999 Plan provides for the immediate vesting of all options in the event of a “Change In Control” of the Company. In the event of a Change In Control, the Company is required to deliver written notice to each optionee under the 1999 Plan fifteen (15) days prior to the occurrence of a Change in Control, during which time all options issued under 1999 Plan may be exercised. Thereafter, all options issued under the 1999 Plan which are neither assumed nor substituted in connection with such transaction, automatically expire, unless otherwise determined by the Board. Under the 1999 Plan, a “Change In Control” is defined to include (i) a sale or transfer of substantially all of the Company’s assets; (ii) the dissolution or liquidation of the Company; (iii) a merger or consolidation to which the Company is a party and after which the prior shareholders of the Company hold less than 50% of the combined voting power of the surviving corporation’s outstanding securities; (iv) the incumbent directors cease to constitute at least a majority of the Board of Directors; or (v) a change in control of the Company which would otherwise be reportable under Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. The 1999 Plan expired in August 2009. As of December 31, 2015, there were outstanding options under the 1999 Plan to purchase 250,000 post-split shares of common stock, and no shares were available for future grants. On October 12, 2004, the Board of Directors of the Company approved the 2004 Stock Option Plan (the 2004 Plan). The 2004 Plan has not yet been presented to stockholders for approval and thus incentive stock options are not available under this plan. Under the terms of this plan, 2,000,000 post-split shares of common stock are reserved for issuance to employees, officers, directors, and consultants of the Company at exercise prices which may not be below 85% of fair market value. The term of stock options granted may not exceed ten years. Options issued under the 2004 Plan vest pursuant to the terms of stock option agreements with the recipients. In the event of a change in control, as defined, all options outstanding vest immediately. The 2004 Plan expired in October 2014. As of December 31, 2015, there were outstanding options under the 2004 Plan to purchase 1,020,000 post-split shares of common stock, and no shares were available for future grants. On December 4, 2015, the Board of Directors of the Company adopted the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan (the 2015 Plan), which the stockholders approved on January 27, 2016. The material features of the 2015 Plan are outlined below. The 2015 Plan is administered by the Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors. Subject to the terms of the 2015 Plan, the plan administrator may determine the recipients, numbers and types of awards to be granted, and terms and conditions of the awards, including the period of their exercisability and vesting. The terms of the 2015 Plan provide for the grant of incentive stock options (ISOs), nonstatutory stock options (NSOs), restricted stock awards, restricted stock unit awards, stock appreciation rights, other stock awards, and performance awards that may be settled in stock, or other property. Under the terms of this plan, 8,000,000 shares of common stock are reserved for issuance to employees, non-employee directors, and consultants at exercise prices which may not be less than 100%-110% of the fair market value of the common stock subject to the stock option on the date of grant. A maximum of 400,000 shares of our common stock may be granted to any one participant during any one calendar year pursuant to stock options, stock appreciation rights or other stock awards. The term of stock options granted may not exceed ten years. If a stock award granted under the 2015 Plan, or any portion thereof, expires, is forfeited or otherwise terminates without all of the shares covered by the stock award having been issued, such expiration, termination or settlement will not reduce or otherwise offset the number of shares available for issuance under the 2015 Plan. In the event of a change in control, a stock award under the 2015 Plan may be subject to additional acceleration of vesting and exercisability. Unless terminated sooner by our Board of Directors, the 2015 Plan will automatically terminate on December 3, 2025. As of December 31, 2015, there were outstanding options under the 2015 Plan to purchase 0 post-split shares of common stock, and 8,000,000 shares were available for future grants. In addition to options issued under the 1999, 2004 and 2015 Plans, the Company has issued options to employees, officers, directors and consultants to purchase common stock under the non-plan. As of December 2015, there were outstanding options under the non-plan to purchase 3,108,833 post-split shares of common stock. The terms of outstanding options under the non-plan are substantially similar to the provisions of the 1999 Plan and options issued thereunder. 37 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE Employment Arrangements The Company has entered into employment agreements with Michael W. DePasquale, Mira LaCous, and Cecilia Welch. See “EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION—Employment Agreements.” Consulting Arrangement with Thomas J. Colatosti In connection with his appointment to the Board of Directors in September 2002, and as acting Chief Financial Officer from November 2008 to December 2009, the Company had entered into a number of consulting arrangements with Thomas Colatosti. Under the most recent arrangement, which was entered into on January 12, 2010, Mr. Colatosti provided services to the Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates for the two-year term ended December 31, 2011 at a rate of $5,000 per month. All amounts owing to Mr. Colatosti were paid during 2014. Licensing Agreement with Subsidiaries of China Goldjoy Group Limited. In November 2015, our subsidiary BIO-key Hong Kong Limited entered into a license purchase agreement with certain subsidiaries of China Goldjoy Group Limited (“CGG”). The license agreement provides for the grant of a perpetual, irrevocable, exclusive, worldwide, fully-paid license to all software and documentation regarding the software code, toolkit, electronic libraries and related technology currently known as or offered under the Finger Q name, together with perpetual license under all related patents held by the licensors and any other intellectual property rights owned by the licensors related to the forgoing software. We made a one-time payment of $12,000,000 to the licensors. Mr. Yao Jianhu is the chairman and chief executive officer of CGG. Mr. Wong Kwok Fong is the chief technology officer of CGG and the beneficial owner of 9.9% of our common stock. October – November 2015 Private Placements On October 22, October 29, and November 11, 2015, Wong Kwok Fong purchased 90,000 shares of our Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share for gross proceeds of $9,000,000. Shares of the Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock are convertible at any time at the option of the holder into shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.30 per share, subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of the Issuer’s outstanding shares of common stock. Holders of shares of our Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock are entitled to elect one director to our board. Wong Kwok Fong is a director of the Company, beneficially owns in excess of 5% of our common stock, and also serves as the chief technology officer of CGG. On November 11, 2015, Giant Leap International, Ltd., which is a subsidiary of CGG, purchased 30,000 shares of our Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share for gross proceeds of $3,000,000. Shares of the Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock are convertible at any time at the option of the holder into shares of common stock at an initial conversion price of $0.30 per share, subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of the Issuer’s outstanding shares of common stock. Holders of shares of our Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock are entitled to elect one director to our board. Yao Jianhui is a director of the Company, and serves as the chairman of the board of directors of CGG. Director Independence The Board applies the definition of independent director as set forth in NASDAQ Stock Market Rule 5605 (a)(2), as well as Rule 10A-3 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In accordance with this guidance, the Board considers Mr. Schoenherr, Mr. Romeo, Mr. Bush and Mr. Gilley, to be independent. Mr. Schoenherr is the sole member of the Company’s Audit Committee, while Mr. Romeo, and Mr. Bush are the members of the Company’s Compensation Committee. 38 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES The following table shows fees for professional services and quarterly audit fees billed to us by Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger & Guttilla, P.C. (“RMSBG”) for the audit of our annual consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014: Audit Fees Audit-Related Fees Tax Fees Total Fees 2015 2014 $ $ 80,167 $ 17,346 27,300 124,813 $ 75,000 7,128 12,000 94,125 Audit Fees consist of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our financial statements and review of the interim financial statements included in quarterly reports and services that are normally provided by our auditors in connection with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements. Audit fees also include fees for services provided in connection with registration of securities, comfort letters, and review of documents filed with the SEC. Audit-Related Fees consist of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to the performance of the audit or review of our financial statements and which are not reported under audit fees. These services relate primarily to the due diligence related to registration statements filed by the Company. Tax Fees consist of fees billed for professional services for tax compliance assistance rendered during the fiscal year. Audit Committee Pre-Approval Procedures The Audit Committee of our Board of Directors consisted solely of John Schoenherr from July 15, 2015, when Barbara Rivera resigned from the Company’s Board of Directors. The Audit Committee approves the engagement of our independent auditors to render audit and non-audit services before they are engaged. All of the fees for 2015 and 2014 shown above were pre-approved by the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee pre-approves all audit and other permitted non-audit services provided by our independent auditors. Pre-approval is generally provided for up to one year, is detailed as to the particular category of services and is subject to a monetary limit. Our independent auditors and senior management periodically report to the Audit Committee the extent of services provided by the independent auditors in accordance with the pre-approval, and the fees for the services performed to date. The Audit Committee may also pre-approve particular services on a case-by-case basis. Our audit committee will not approve engagements of our independent registered public accounting firm to perform non-audit services for us if doing so will cause our independent registered public accounting firm to cease to be independent within the meaning of applicable SEC rules. In other circumstances, our audit committee considers, among other things, whether our independent registered public accounting firm is able to provide the required services in a more or less effective and efficient manner than other available service providers. ITEM 15. EXHIBITS (a) The following documents are filed as part of this Report. Portions of Item 15 are submitted as separate sections of this Report: (1) Financial statements filed as part of this Report: Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm Consolidated Balance Sheets as at December 31, 2015 and 2014 Consolidated Statements of Operations—Years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 Consolidated Statement of Stockholders’ Equity—Years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows—Years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—December 31, 2015 and 2014 (b) The exhibits listed in the Exhibits Index immediately preceding such exhibits are filed as part of this Report 39 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. ITEM 8—FINANCIAL STATEMENTS The following financial statements of BIO-key International, Inc. are included herein at the indicated page numbers: Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm Consolidated Balance Sheets as at December 31, 2015 and 2014 Consolidated Statements of Operations—Years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity—Years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows—Years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements—December 31, 2015 and 2014 40 41 42 43 44 45 47 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm The Board of Directors and Stockholders BIO-key International, Inc. Wall, NJ We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders’ equity and cash flows for the years then ended. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. Our audits included consideration of internal control over financial reporting as a basis for designing audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion. An audit also includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management as well as evaluating the overall consolidated financial statement presentation. We believe our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As disclosed in the consolidated financial statements, the Company has suffered substantial net losses in recent years, has an accumulated deficit at December 31, 2015 and is dependent on debt and equity financing to fund its operations, all of which raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans regarding these matters are disclosed in Note A. The consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. /s/ Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger & Guttilla, P.C. ROTENBERG MERIL SOLOMON BERTIGER & GUTTILLA, P.C. Saddle Brook, New Jersey March 30, 2016 41 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents Accounts receivable, net Due from factor Inventory Software license rights Prepaid expenses and other Total current assets Software license rights Equipment and leasehold improvements, net Deposits and other assets Intangible assets—less accumulated amortization Total non-current assets TOTAL ASSETS LIABILITIES Accounts payable Accrued liabilities Deferred revenue Warrant liabilities Total current liabilities TOTAL LIABILITIES Commitments and Contingencies December 31, 2015 2014 $ $ $ 4,321,078 $ 3,391,405 37,421 348,645 5,000,000 97,203 13,195,752 7,000,000 63,877 8,712 147,738 7,220,327 20,416,079 $ 1,158,555 $ 626,918 376,405 104,284 2,266,162 2,266,162 843,632 625,341 76,657 11,825 - 236,429 1,793,884 - 103,509 8,712 161,344 273,565 2,067,449 347,311 488,617 429,233 43,227 1,308,388 1,308,388 STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY Series A-1 convertible preferred stock: authorized, 100,000 (liquidation preference of $100 per share); issued and outstanding 90,000 and 0 of $.0001 par value at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively Series B-1 convertible preferred stock: authorized, 105,000 (liquidation preference of $100 per share); issued and outstanding 105,000 and 0 of $.0001 par value at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively Common stock — authorized, 170,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding; 66,098,482 and 66,001,260 of $.0001 par value at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively Additional paid-in capital Accumulated deficit TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY 9 11 - - 6,610 76,754,737 (58,611,450) 18,149,917 20,416,079 $ 6,600 57,506,605 (56,754,144) 759,061 2,067,449 $ All BIO-key shares issued and outstanding for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015. The accompanying notes are an integral part of these statements. 42 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS $ $ $ Years ended December 31, 2014 2015 931,394 $ 4,329,831 5,261,225 260,436 1,019,085 1,279,521 3,981,704 4,121,030 1,556,025 5,677,055 (1,695,351) 14 (192,199) 31,142 (912) (161,955) (1,857,306) $ 1,489,820 2,516,036 4,005,856 445,803 302,947 748,750 3,257,106 3,670,090 1,626,136 5,296,226 (2,039,120) 7 - 157,253 (1,712) 155,548 (1,883,572) (0.03) $ (0.03) 66,032,523 59,047,282 Revenues Services License fees and other Costs and other expenses Cost of services Cost of license fees and other Gross Profit Operating expenses Selling, general and administrative Research, development and engineering Operating loss Other income (deductions) Interest income Interest expense Gain on derivative liabilities Income taxes Net loss Basic and Diluted Loss per Common Share Weighted Average Shares Outstanding: Basic and Diluted All per-share amounts and BIO-key shares outstanding for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015. The accompanying notes are an integral part of these statements. 43 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY Series A-1 Preferred Stock Series B-1 Preferred Stock Common Stock Shares Amount Shares Amount Shares Amount Additional Paid-in Accumulated Capital Deficit Total Balance as of December 31, 2013 Issuance of common stock and warrants pursuant to security purchase agreements Issuance of common stock in exchange for cashless exercise of warrants Issuance of common stock in exchange for cashless exercise of options Reclassification of derivative liability Repurchase of warrants Stock issuance costs Share-based compensation Net loss Balance as of December 31, 2014 Issuance of common stock for directors’ fees Issuance of series A-1 and B-1 preferred stock Dividends declared on preferred stock Issuance of warrants for investment advisor Stock issuance costs Share-based compensation Net loss Balance as of December 31, 2015 — $ — — $ — 57,921,258 $ 5,792 $ 55,915,715 $ (54,870,572) $ 1,050,935 7,974,999 797 1,594,203 — 1,595,000 76,830 8 (8) — — 28,173 3 (3) 42,597 (150,000) (103,157) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 42,597 (150,000) (103,157) 207,258 — — 207,258 (1,883,572) (1,883,572) — $ — — $ — 66,001,260 $ 6,600 $ 57,506,605 $ (56,754,144) $ 759,061 90,000 9 105,000 11 19,499,980 19,500,000 97,222 10 16,990 17,000 (133,851 ) 51,026 (459,102 ) 273,089 (133,851) 51,026 (459,102) 273,089 (1,857,306) (1,857,306) 90,000 $ 9 105,000 $ 11 66,098,482 $ 6,610 $ 76,754,737 $ (58,611,450) $ 18,149,917 All BIO-key share amounts for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which was effective February 3, 2015. The accompanying notes are an integral part of these statements. 44 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net loss Adjustments to reconcile net loss to cash used for operating activities: Allowance for doubtful accounts Depreciation Amortization of: Intangible assets Debt discount Share and warrant-based compensation for employees and consultants Gain on derivative liabilities Stock issued to Directors Change in assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable Due from factor Inventory Software license rights Prepaid expenses and other Accounts payable Accrued liabilities Deferred revenue Net cash used for operating activities CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Capital expenditures Net cash used for investing activities CASH FLOW FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Proceeds from issuances of preferred stock Proceeds from issuances of common stock Proceeds from issuance of note payable Repayment of note payable Repurchase of outstanding warrants Costs to issue preferred and common stock and note payable Net cash provided by financing activities NET INCREASE (DECREASE) IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS, BEGINNING OF YEAR CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS, END OF YEAR Years ended December 31, 2014 2015 $ (1,857,306) $ (1,883,572) (6,741) 42,996 13,606 92,199 324,115 (31,142) 17,000 (2,759,323) 39,236 (336,820) (12,000,000) 139,226 811,244 4,450 (52,828) (15,560,088) (3,364) (3,364) 19,500,000 - 250,000 (250,000) - (459,102) 19,040,898 3,477,446 843,632 4,321,078 $ - 40,186 13,606 - 207,258 (157,253) - (341,316) (74,208) (2,449) (162,947) (193,601) 150,296 (98,927) (2,502,927) (18,633) (18,633) - 1,595,000 - - (150,000) (103,157) 1,341,843 (1,179,717) 2,023,349 843,632 $ The accompanying notes are an integral part of these statements. 45 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. SUPPLEMENTARY DISCLOSURES OF CASH FLOW INFORMATION Cash paid for: Interest Noncash investing and financing activities: Reclassification of derivative liability to additional paid-in capital Issuance of warrants for financing raise Accrual of dividends Years ended December 31, 2014 2015 $ $ 100,000 $ — - $ 92,199 133,851 42,597 - - The accompanying notes are an integral part of these statements. 46 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS December 31, 2015 and 2014 NOTE A —THE COMPANY AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES Nature of Business The Company, founded in 1993, develops and markets proprietary fingerprint identification biometric technology and software solutions. The Company also delivers advanced identification solutions and information services to law enforcement departments, public safety agencies and other government and private sector customers. Our mobile wireless technology provides first responders with critical, reliable, real-time data and images from local, state and national databases. Basis of Presentation The Company has incurred significant losses to date, and at December 31, 2015, it had an accumulated deficit of approximately $59 million. In addition, broad commercial acceptance of the Company’s technology is critical to the Company’s success and ability to generate future revenues. At December 31, 2015, total cash and cash equivalents were approximately $4,321,000, as compared to approximately $844,000 at December 31, 2014. As discussed below, the Company has financed itself in the past through access to the capital markets by issuing secured and convertible debt securities, convertible preferred stock, common stock, and through factoring receivables. The Company currently requires approximately $512,000 per month to conduct operations, a monthly amount that it has been unable to achieve through revenue generation. With the addition of the dividend obligations for the Series A-1 and B-1 shares, the monthly amount will increase by approximately $67,000, to $579,000. If the Company is unable to generate sufficient revenue to meet our goals, it will need to obtain additional third-party financing to (i) conduct the sales, marketing and technical support necessary to execute its plan to substantially grow operations, increase revenue and serve a significant customer base; and (ii) provide working capital. No assurance can be given that any form of additional financing will be available on terms acceptable to the Company, that adequate financing will be obtained by the Company in order to meet its needs, or that such financing would not be dilutive to existing shareholders. The accompanying financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"), which contemplate continuation of the Company as a going concern, and assumes continuity of operations, realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. The matters described in the preceding paragraphs raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Recoverability of a major portion of the recorded asset amounts shown in the accompanying balance sheet is dependent upon the Company’s ability to meet its financing requirements on a continuing basis, and become profitable in its future operations. The accompanying consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments relating to the recoverability and classification of recorded assets or the amounts and classification of liabilities that might be necessary should the Company be unable to continue in existence. Effective February 3, 2015, the Company implemented a reverse stock split of its outstanding common stock at a ratio of 1 - for - 2 shares. All share figures and results are reflected on a post-split basis. See Note O. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies A summary of the significant accounting policies consistently applied in the preparation of the accompanying consolidated financial statements follows: 1. Basis of Consolidation The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of BIO-key International, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”). Intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. 47 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. 2. Use of Estimates Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP as set forth in the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) and consider the various staff accounting bulletins and other applicable guidance issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These accounting principles require us to make certain estimates, judgments and assumptions. The Company believes that the estimates, judgments and assumptions upon which it relies are reasonable based upon information available to us at the time that these estimates, judgments and assumptions are made. These estimates, judgments and assumptions can affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the periods presented. To the extent there are material differences between these estimates, judgments or assumptions and actual results, its consolidated financial statements will be affected. In many cases, the accounting treatment of a particular transaction is specifically dictated by GAAP and does not require management’s judgment in its application. There are also areas in which management’s judgment in selecting among available alternatives would not produce a materially different result. 3. Revenue Recognition Revenues from software licensing are recognized in accordance with ASC 985-605, "Software Revenue Recognition." Accordingly, revenue from software licensing is recognized when all of the following criteria are met: persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the fee is fixed or determinable, and collectability is probable. The Company intends to enter into arrangements with end users for items which may include software license fees, and services or various combinations thereof. For each arrangement, revenues will be recognized when evidence of an agreement has been documented, the fees are fixed or determinable, collection of fees is probable, delivery of the product has occurred and no other significant obligations remain. Multiple-Element Arrangements: For multiple-element arrangements, the Company applies the residual method in accordance with ASC 985-605. The residual method requires that the portion of the total arrangement fee attributable to the undelivered elements be deferred based on its vendor-specific objective evidence ("VSOE") of fair value and subsequently recognized as the service is delivered. The difference between the total arrangement fee and the amount deferred for the undelivered elements is recognized as revenue related to the delivered elements, which is generally the software license. VSOE of fair value for all elements in an arrangement is based upon the normal pricing for those products and services when sold separately. VSOE of fair value for support services is additionally determined by the renewal rate in customer contracts. The Company has established VSOE of fair value for support as well as consulting services. License Revenues: Amounts allocated to license revenues are recognized at the time of delivery of the software and all other revenue recognition criteria discussed above have been met. Revenue from licensing software, which requires significant customization and modification, is recognized using the percentage of completion method, based on the hours of effort incurred by the Company in relation to the total estimated hours to complete. In instances where third party hardware, software or services form a significant portion of a customer’s contract, the Company recognizes revenue for the element of software customization by the percentage of completion method described above. Otherwise, third party hardware, software, and services are recognized upon shipment or acceptance as appropriate. If the Company makes different judgments or utilizes different estimates of the total amount of work expected to be required to customize or modify the software, the timing and revenue recognition, from period to period, and the margins on the project in the reporting period, may differ materially from amounts reported. Anticipated contract losses are recognized as soon as they become known and are estimable. Service Revenues: Revenues from services are comprised of maintenance and consulting and implementation services. Maintenance revenues include providing for unspecified when-and-if available product updates and customer telephone support services, and are recognized ratably over the term of the service period. Consulting services are generally sold on a time-and-materials basis and include a range of services including installation of software and assisting in the design of interfaces to allow the software to operate in customized environments. Services are generally separable from other elements under the arrangement since performance of the services are not essential to the functionality of any other element of the transaction and are described in the contract such that the total price of the arrangement would be expected to vary as the result of the inclusion or exclusion of the services. Revenues from services are generally recognized as the services are performed. The Company provides customers, free of charge or at a minimal cost, testing kits which potential licensing customers may use to test compatibility/acceptance of the Company’s technology with the customer’s intended applications. 48 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Costs and other expenses: Includes professional compensation and other direct contract expenses, as well as costs attributable to the support of client service professional staff, depreciation and amortization costs related to assets used in revenue-generating activities, and other costs attributable to serving the Company’s client base. Professional compensation consists of payroll costs and related benefits including stock-based compensation and bonuses. Other direct contract expenses include costs directly attributable to client engagements, such as out-of-pocket costs including travel and subsistence for client service professional staff, costs of hardware and software and costs of subcontractors. The allocation of lease and facilities charges for occupied offices is included in costs of service. The Company accounts for its warranties under the FASB ASC 450, “Contingencies.” The Company generally warrants that its products are free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one year from the date of initial receipt by its customers. The warranty does not cover any losses or damage that occurs as a result of improper installation, misuse or neglect or repair or modification by anyone other than the Company or its authorized repair agent. The Company’s policy is to accrue anticipated warranty costs based upon historical percentages of items returned for repair within one year of the initial sale. The Company’s repair rate of products under warranty has been minimal, and a historical percentage has not been established. The Company’s software license agreements generally include certain provisions for indemnifying customers against liabilities if the Company’s software products infringe upon a third party’s intellectual property rights. The Company has not provided for any reserves for warranty liabilities as it was determined to be immaterial. 4. Cash Equivalents Cash equivalents consist of liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less. At December 31, 2015 and 2014, cash equivalents consisted of a money market account. 5. Accounts Receivable Accounts receivable are carried at original amount less an estimate made for doubtful receivables based on a review of all outstanding amounts on a monthly basis. Management determines the allowance for doubtful receivables by regularly evaluating individual customer receivables and considering a customer’s financial condition, credit history, and current economic conditions. Accounts receivable are written off when deemed uncollectible. Recoveries of accounts receivable previously written off are recorded when received. Accounts receivable at December 31, 2015 and 2014 consisted of the following: Accounts receivable Allowance for doubtful accounts Accounts receivable, net of allowances for doubtful accounts December 31, 2015 2014 $ $ 3,405,190 $ (13,785) 3,391,405 $ 645,867 (20,526) 625,341 The allowance for doubtful accounts for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 is as follows: Year Ended December 31, 2015 Allowance for Doubtful Accounts Year Ended December 31, 2014 Allowance for Doubtful Accounts 6. Software License Rights Balance at Beginning of Year Charged to Costs and Expenses Deductions From Reserves Balance at End of Year $ $ 20,526 $ 20,526 $ - $ - $ (6,741) $ 13,785 - $ 20,526 Software license rights acquired for re-sale to end users are recorded as assets when purchased. and are stated at the lower of cost or estimated net realizable value. The cost of the software license rights has been initially allocated pro-rata to the maximum number of resalable end-user licenses in the rights contract and are charged to cost of sales ratably as each end user license is resold to a customer. Management re-evaluates the total sub-licenses it expects to sell during the term of the contract and will adjust the ratable costs charged to cost of sales accordingly. The rights are also evaluated by management on a periodic basis to determine if estimated future net revenues, on a per sub-license basis, support the recorded basis of each license. If the estimated net revenues are less than the current carrying value of the capitalized software license rights, the Company will reduce the rights to their net realizable value. Capitalized software license rights expected to be sold to customers in the succeeding year are classified as current assets. 7. Equipment and Leasehold Improvements, Intangible Assets and Depreciation and Amortization Equipment and leasehold improvements are stated at cost. Depreciation is provided for in amounts sufficient to relate the cost of depreciable assets to operations over the estimated service lives, principally using straight-line methods. Leasehold improvements are amortized over the shorter of the life of the improvement or the lease term, using the straight-line method. 49 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The estimated useful lives used to compute depreciation and amortization for financial reporting purposes are as follows: Equipment and leasehold improvements Equipment (years) Furniture and fixtures (years) Software (years) Leasehold improvements 2015 3 3 5 5 - - 3 life or lease term Intangible assets consist of patents. Patent costs are capitalized until patents are awarded. Upon award, such costs are amortized using the straight-line method over their respective economic lives. If a patent is denied, all costs are charged to operations in that year. 8. Impairment or Disposal of Long Lived Assets, including Intangible Assets The Company reviews long-lived assets, including intangible assets subject to amortization, whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of such an asset may not be recoverable. Recoverability of these assets is measured by comparison of their carrying amount to the future undiscounted cash flows the assets are expected to generate. If such assets are considered impaired, the impairment to be recognized is equal to the amount by which the carrying value of the assets exceeds their fair value determined by either a quoted market price, if any, or a value determined by utilizing a discounted cash flow technique. In assessing recoverability, the Company must make assumptions regarding estimated future cash flows and discount factors. If these estimates or related assumptions change in the future, the Company may be required to record impairment charges. Intangible assets with determinable lives are amortized over their estimated useful lives, based upon the pattern in which the expected benefits will be realized, or on a straight-line basis, whichever is greater. We did not record any impairment charges in any of the years presented. 9. Advertising Expense The Company expenses the costs of advertising as incurred. Advertising expenses for 2015 and 2014 were approximately $339,000 and $252,000, respectively. 10. Deferred Revenue Deferred revenue includes customer advances and amounts that have been billed per the contractual terms but have not been recognized as revenue. The majority of these amounts are related to maintenance contracts for which the revenue is recognized ratably over the applicable term, which generally is 12 months from the date the customer is delivered the products. 11. Research and Development Expenditures Research and development expenses include costs directly attributable to the conduct of research and development programs primarily related to the development of our software products and improving the efficiency and capabilities of our existing software. Such costs include salaries, payroll taxes, employee benefit costs, materials, supplies, depreciation on research equipment, services provided by outside contractors, and the allocable portions of facility costs, such as rent, utilities, insurance, repairs and maintenance, depreciation and general support services. All costs associated with research and development are expensed as incurred. 12. Earnings Per Share of Common Stock (“EPS”) The Company’s EPS is calculated by dividing net income (loss) applicable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the reporting period. Diluted EPS includes the effect from potential issuances of common stock, such as stock issuable pursuant to the conversion of preferred stock, exercise of stock options and warrants, when the effect of their inclusion is dilutive. See Note S - Earnings Per Share “EPS” for additional information. 13. Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation The Company accounts for share based compensation in accordance with the provisions of ASC 718-10, “Compensation — Stock Compensation,” which requires measurement of compensation cost for all stock awards at fair value on date of grant and recognition of compensation over the service period for awards expected to vest. The majority of its share-based compensation arrangements vest over either a three or four year vesting schedule. The Company expenses its share-based compensation under the ratable method, which treats each vesting tranche as if it were an individual grant. The fair value of stock options is determined using the Black-Scholes valuation model, and requires the input of highly subjective assumptions. These assumptions include estimating the length of time employees will retain their vested stock options before exercising them (the “expected option term”), the estimated volatility of its common stock price over the option’s expected term, the risk-free interest rate over the option’s expected term, and the Company’s expected annual dividend yield. Changes in these subjective assumptions can materially affect the estimate of fair value of stock-based compensation and consequently, the related amount recognized as an expense in the consolidated statements of operations. As required under the accounting rules, the Company reviews its valuation assumptions at each grant date and, as a result, the Company is likely to change its valuation assumptions used to value employee stock-based awards granted in future periods. The values derived from using the Black-Scholes model are recognized as expense over the service period, net of estimated forfeitures (the number of individuals that will ultimately not complete their vesting requirements). The estimation of stock awards that will ultimately vest requires significant judgment. The Company considers many factors when estimating expected forfeitures, including types of awards, employee class, and historical experience. Actual results, and future changes in estimates, may differ substantially from current estimates. 50 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The compensation expense recognized under ASC 718 amounted to $273,089 and $207,258 for 2015 and 2014, respectively. The following table presents share-based compensation expenses included in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations: Selling, general and administrative Research, development and engineering Valuation Assumptions for Stock Options Year ended December 31, 2015 2014 $ $ 134,047 $ 139,042 273,089 $ 161,466 45,792 207,258 For 2015 and 2014, 1,428,000 and 1,835,000 stock options were granted, respectively. The fair value of each option was estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following assumptions: Weighted average Risk free interest rate Expected life of options (in years) Expected dividends Weighted average Volatility of stock price Year ended December 31, 2015 2014 1.46% 4.5 0% 117% 1.34% 4.5 0% 119% The stock volatility for each grant is determined based on the review of the experience of the weighted average of historical daily price changes of the Company’s common stock over the expected option term. The expected term was determined using the simplified method for estimating expected option life, which qualify as “plain-vanilla” options; and the risk-free rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant for periods corresponding with the expected life of the option. 14. Derivative Liabilities In connection with the issuances of equity instruments or debt, the Company may issue options or warrants to purchase common stock. In certain circumstances, these options or warrants may be classified as liabilities, rather than as equity. In addition, the equity instrument or debt may contain embedded derivative instruments, such as conversion options or listing requirements, which in certain circumstances may be required to be bifurcated from the associated host instrument and accounted for separately as a derivative liability instrument. The Company accounts for derivative liability instruments under the provisions of FASB ASC 815, “Derivatives and Hedging.” 15. Deferred Costs Costs incurred with obtaining and executing debt arrangements are capitalized and amortized to interest expense using the effective interest method over the term of the related debt. 51 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. 16. Income Taxes The provision for, or benefit from, income taxes includes deferred taxes resulting from the temporary differences in income for financial and tax purposes using the liability method. Such temporary differences result primarily from the differences in the carrying value of assets and liabilities. Future realization of deferred income tax assets requires sufficient taxable income within the carryback, carryforward period available under tax law. The Company evaluates, on a quarterly basis whether, based on all available evidence, if it is probable that the deferred income tax assets are realizable. Valuation allowances are established when it is more likely than not that the tax benefit of the deferred tax asset will not be realized. The evaluation, as prescribed by ASC 740-10, “Income Taxes,” includes the consideration of all available evidence, both positive and negative, regarding historical operating results including recent years with reported losses, the estimated timing of future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, estimated future taxable income exclusive of reversing temporary differences and carryforwards, and potential tax planning strategies which may be employed to prevent an operating loss or tax credit carryforward from expiring unused. Because of the Company’s historical performance and estimated future taxable income, a full valuation allowance has been established. The Company accounts for uncertain tax provisions in accordance with ASC 740-10-05, “Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes.” The ASC clarifies the accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in an enterprise’s financial statements. The ASC prescribes a recognition threshold and measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. The ASC provides guidance on de-recognition, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim periods, disclosure and transition. 17. Recent Accounting Pronouncements In May 2014, ASU No. 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” was issued. The comprehensive new standard will supersede existing revenue recognition guidance and require revenue to be recognized when promised goods or services are transferred to customers in amounts that reflect the consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The guidance will also require that certain contract costs incurred to obtain or fulfill a contract, such as sales commissions, be capitalized as an asset and amortized as revenue is recognized. Adoption of the new rules could affect the timing of both revenue recognition and the incurrence of contract costs for certain transactions. The guidance permits two implementation approaches, one requiring retrospective application of the new standard with restatement of prior years and one requiring prospective application of the new standard with disclosure of results under old standards. The new standard was scheduled to be effective for reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017 and early adoption is not permitted. In August 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-14, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Deferral of Effective Date" ("ASU 2015-14") which defers the effective date of ASU 2014-09 by one year. ASU 2014-09 is now effective for annual reporting periods after December 15, 2018 including interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adoption and the implementation approach to be used. Effective January 1, 2015, the Company adopted ASU No. 2015-01, “Income Statement – Extraordinary and Unusual Items (Subtopic 225-20): Simplifying Income Statement Presentation by Eliminating the Concept of Extraordinary items” (“ASU 2015-01”) was issued. ASU 2015-01 eliminates from GAAP the concept of extraordinary items. ASU 2015-01 is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2015. A reporting entity may apply the amendments prospectively. The adoption of ASU 2014-15 did not have a material effect on its consolidated financial statements. In April 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-03, “Interest-Imputation of Interest (Subtopic 835-30): Simplifying the Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs.” ASU 2015-03 requires debt issuance costs related to a debt liability measured at amortized cost to be reported in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the face amount of the debt liability. ASU 2015-03 is effective for interim and annual periods beginning January 1, 2016 with early adoption permitted, and is applied on a retrospective basis. The adoption of ASU 2015-03 is not expected to materially impact the Company’s consolidated financial statements. In July 2015 the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-11, "Inventory (Topic 330): Simplifying the Measurement of Inventory" ("ASU 2015-11"). The amendments in ASU 2015-11 clarifies the measurement of inventory to be the lower of cost or realizable value and would only apply to inventory valued using the FIFO or average costing methods. ASU 2015-11 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The reporting entity should apply the amendments prospectively with earlier application permitted as of the beginning of an interim or annual reporting period. The Company is currently evaluating the effects of adopting ASU 2015-11 on its consolidated financial statements but the adoption is not expected to have a significant impact. In September 2015, FASB issued ASU 2015-16, “Simplifying the Accounting for Measurement-Period Adjustments” (“ASU 2015-16”). This standard requires an acquirer to recognize adjustments to provisional amounts that are identified during the measurement period in the reporting period in which the adjustment amounts are determined. ASU 2015-16 also requires separate presentation on the face of the income statement, or disclosure in the notes, of the amount recorded in current-period earnings by line item that would have been recorded in previous reporting periods if the adjustment to the provisional amount had been recognized as of the acquisition date. ASU 2015-16 is effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2016. The Company does not believe that this will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements. 52 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. In November 2015, FASB issued ASU 2015-17, “Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes” (“ASU 2015-17”). This standard requires entities to present deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities as noncurrent in a classified balance sheet. It may be applied either prospectively to all deferred tax liabilities and assets or retrospectively to all periods presented. The amendments are effective for financial statements issued for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Earlier application is permitted for all entities as of the beginning of an interim or annual reporting period. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the Company elected to early adopt using the prospective method. Therefore, no prior periods were retrospectively adjusted. The adoption did not have a material impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements. Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standard if currently adopted would have a material effect on the accompanying consolidated financial statements. NOTE B—FACTORING Due from factor consisted of the following as of December 31: Year Ended December 31, 2015 Factored accounts receivable Year Ended December 31, 2014 Factored accounts receivable Original Invoice Value Factored Amount Factored Balance due $ $ 149,680 $ 112,259 $ 306,625 $ 229,968 $ 37,421 76,657 As of December 2011, the Company entered into a 24 month accounts receivable factoring arrangement with a financial institution (the “Factor”). Pursuant to the terms of the arrangement, the Company, from time to time, sells to the Factor certain of its accounts receivable balances on a non-recourse basis for credit approved accounts. The Factor remits 35% of the foreign and 75% of the domestic accounts receivable balance to the Company (the “Advance Amount”), with the remaining balance, less fees to be forwarded to the Company once the Factor collects the full accounts receivable balance from the customer. In addition, the Company, from time to time, receives over advances from the factor. Factoring fees range from 2.75% to 21% of the face value of the invoice factored, and are determined by the number of days required for collection of the invoice. In April 2012, the terms were updated from monthly to quarterly, and the 24-month arrangement was extended to August 1, 2014. In July of 2014, the arrangement was extended to July 31, 2016. The cost of factoring is included in selling, general and administrative expenses. The cost of factoring was as follows: Years Ended December 31, 2014 2015 Factoring fees $ 383,629 $ 188,904 NOTE C—FAIR VALUES OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS Cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, inventory, due from factor, accounts payable and accrued liabilities are carried at, or approximate, fair value because of their short-term nature. The fair value of the warrant liabilities is measured at fair value using the following assumptions: Risk free interest rate Expected term Expected dividends Volatility of stock price 2015 0.54% - 1.70% 0.82 - 4.73 0 84.5% - 114.9% 53 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. For the embedded derivatives that were bifurcated from the associated host instruments, the Company utilized the Monte Carlo simulation. The stock volatility for each grant is determined based on the review of the experience of the weighted average of historical daily price changes of the Company’s common stock over the expected term and the risk-free rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant for periods corresponding with the expected term of the derivative. The warrant and derivative liabilities are considered Level 3 liabilities on the fair value hierarchy as the determination of fair value includes various assumptions about future activities and the Company’s stock prices and historical volatility as inputs. The table below provides a reconciliation of the beginning and ending balances for the liabilities measured at fair value using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3). There were no assets as of or during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 measured using significant unobservable inputs. Fair Value Measurements Using Significant Unobservable Inputs (Level 3): Warrants issued Under October and November 2013 PI SPA (Note N2b) Fair value at January 1, 2015 Gain on derivative Value at December 31, 2015 Warrant issued under September 2015 SPA (Note H) Fair value at January 1, 2015 Fair value at issuance Loss on derivative Value at December 31, 2015 Balance, December 31, 2015 NOTE D—CONCENTRATION OF RISK 43,227 (35,749) 7,478 - 92,199 4,607 96,806 104,284 $ Financial instruments which potentially subject the Company to risk primarily consist of cash and accounts receivables. The Company maintains its cash and cash equivalents with various financial institutions, which, at times may exceed the amounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The exposure to the Company is solely dependent upon daily bank balances and the respective strength of the financial institutions. The Company has not incurred any losses on these accounts. At December 31, 2015 and 2014, amounts in excess of insured limits were approximately $4,073,000 and $586,000, respectively. The Company extends credit to customers on an unsecured basis in the normal course of business. The Company’s policy is to perform an analysis of the recoverability of its receivables at the end of each reporting period and to establish allowances where appropriate. The Company analyzes historical bad debts and contract losses, customer concentrations, and customer credit-worthiness when evaluating the adequacy of the allowances. The Company had certain customers whose revenue individually represented 10% or more of the Company’s total revenue, as follows: Customer A Customer B Customer C Customer D * Less than 10% of total revenue Years Ended December 31, 2014 2015 37% * * * The Company had certain customers whose accounts receivable balances individually represented 10% or more of the Company’s total accounts receivable, as follows: Customer A Customer B Customer C Customer D * Less than 10% of total accounts receivable As of December 31, 2015 2014 62% 14% 11% - * 11% 10% 44% - - * 62% Customer A’s receivable of $2,070,000 has been past due per the terms of the invoice for six months as of December 31, 2015. Based on prior history with this customer the Company feels the amount is fully collectable and has determined that a reserve is not necessary. 54 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. NOTE E—INVENTORY Inventory is stated at the lower of cost, determined on a first in, first out basis, or market, and consists primarily of fabricated assemblies and finished goods. Inventory is comprised of the following as of December 31: Current Finished goods Fabricated assemblies Total current inventory NOTE F—SOFTWARE LICENSE RIGHTS 2015 2014 246,475 102,170 348,645 $ 11,825 - 11,825 $ On November 11, 2015, the Company entered into a license agreement for the rights to all software and documentation regarding the technology currently known as or offered under the FingerQ name (refer to Note K - Related Party). The license agreement grants the Company the exclusive right to reproduce, create derivative works and distribute copies of the FingerQ software and documentation, create new FingerQ related products, and grant sub-licenses of the licensed technology to end users. The license rights have been granted to the Company in perpetuity, with a stated number of end-user resale sub-licenses allowed under the contract. As of December 31, 2015, the Company has not sold any sub-licenses. The Company made a one-time payment of $12,000,000 to the licensors. The cost of sub-license rights expected to be sold to customers in the succeeding year is $5,000,000 and is classified as a current asset. NOTE G—EQUIPMENT AND LEASEHOLD IMPROVEMENTS Equipment and leasehold improvements consisted of the following as of December 31: Equipment Furniture and fixtures Software Leasehold improvements Less accumulated depreciation and amortization Total Depreciation and amortization were $42,996 and $40,186 for 2015 and 2014, respectively. 55 $ 2015 2014 398,910 $ 139,779 28,624 53,948 621,261 395,546 139,779 28,624 53,948 617,897 (557,384) (514,388) $ 63,877 $ 103,509 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. NOTE H—INTANGIBLE ASSETS Intangible assets consisted of the following as of December 31: 2015 2014 Gross Carrying Amount Accumulated Amortization Net Carrying Amount Gross Carrying Amount Accumulated Amortization Net Carrying Amount Patents and patents pending Total $ $ 287,248 $ (139,510) $ 147,738 $ 287,248 $ (125,904) $ 161,344 287,248 $ (139,510) $ 147,738 $ 287,248 $ (125,904) $ 161,344 Aggregate amortization expense for both 2015 and 2014 was $13,606. The estimated aggregate amortization expense of intangible assets for the years following December 31, 2015 is approximately $14,000 per year for 2016 through 2020, and approximately $78,000 thereafter. NOTE I—NOTE PAYABLE Securities Purchase Agreement dated September 23, 2015 On September 23, 2015 the Company issued a promissory note due seven months from the date of issuance and a warrant to purchase 833,333 shares of common stock in net consideration after the original issue discount, of $250,000. The principal sum due under the note is the aggregate purchase price of $250,000 plus an original issue discount of approximately 20% of the purchase price and a one-time interest charge of 12% of the purchase price. The principal sum and all other amounts owing under the note were fully paid by the Company following the initial closing of the October 2015 Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock offering. The warrants are immediately exercisable at an exercise price of $0.30 per share and have a term of five years. The warrants have customary anti-dilution protections including a "full ratchet" anti-dilution adjustment provision which are triggered in the event the Company sells or grants any additional shares of common stock, options, warrants or other securities that are convertible into common stock at a price lower than $0.30 per share, The anti-dilution adjustment provision is not triggered by certain "exempt issuances" which among other issuances, includes the issuance of shares of common stock, options or other securities to officers, employees, directors, consultants or service providers. Based on an evaluation as discussed in FASB ASC 815-15, “Embedded Derivatives” and FASB ASC 815-40-15, “Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity - Scope and Scope Exceptions,” the Company determined that the full ratchet anti-dilution feature in the common stock issued was not considered indexed to its own stock because neither the occurrence of a sale of equity securities by the issuer at market nor the issuance of another equity contract with a lower strike price is an input to the fair value of a fixed-for-fixed option or forward on equity shares. As such, the full ratchet anti-dilution feature should be bifurcated from the common stock and accounted for as a derivative liability. The Company did not value the derivative liability. One of the key determinants of the Company’s decision to not value the derivative liability was the high likelihood that a future financing would not occur that would trigger the down round feature. Whether a future equity financing would occur would be determined by the cash needs of the Company and management’s willingness to trigger the down round feature. The Company’s reasons were based on the issuance of Series A and Series B preferred stock in October and November of 2015, issued at a conversion price of $0.30. The cashless exercise features contained in the warrants are considered to be derivatives and the Company recorded warrant liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet. The Company initially recorded a debt discount of $92,199 and a warrant liability in the same amount. The debt discount is being amortized over the term of the loan. The total amortized debt discount including interest expense was $192,199 for the year ended December 31, 2015. The warrants issued by the Company are valued using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The Company is required to mark-to-market the warrant liabilities at the end of each reporting period. For the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company recorded a loss on the change in fair value of the cashless exercise features of $4,607. December 31, 2015, the fair value of the cashless exercise features was $96,806. 56 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. NOTE J—ACCRUED LIABILITIES Accrued liabilities consisted of the following as of December 31: Compensation Compensated absences Dividends payable – preferred stock Accrued legal and accounting fees Sales tax payable Other Total NOTE K—RELATED PARTY Consulting Arrangement with Thomas J. Colatosti 2015 2014 $ 78,016 $ 113,996 133,851 141,000 48,255 111,800 $ 626,918 $ 203,349 116,439 3,435 92,000 55,436 17,958 488,617 In connection with his appointment to the Board of Directors in September 2002, and as acting Chief Financial Officer from November 2008 to December 2009, we had entered into a number of consulting arrangements with Thomas Colatosti. Under the most recent arrangement, which was entered into on January 12, 2010, Mr. Colatosti provided services to the Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates for the two-year term ended December 31, 2011 at a rate of $5,000 per month. All amounts owing to Mr. Colatosti were paid during 2014. Licensing Agreement with Subsidiaries of China Goldjoy Group Limited. On November 11, 2015 our subsidiary BIO-key Hong Kong Limited entered into a license purchase agreement with certain subsidiaries of China Goldjoy Group Limited (“CGG”). The license agreement provides for the grant of a perpetual, irrevocable, exclusive, worldwide, fully-paid license to all software and documentation regarding the software code, toolkit, electronic libraries and related technology currently known as or offered under the Finger Q name, together with perpetual license under all related patents held by the licensors and any other intellectual property rights owned by the licensors related to the forgoing software. We made a one-time payment of $12,000,000 to the licensors. Mr. Yao Jianhu is the chairman and chief executive officer of CGG and a director of the Company. Mr. Wong Kwok Fong is the chief technology officer of CGG, the beneficial owner of 9.9% of our common stock, and a director of the Company. NOTE L—DEFERRED REVENUE Deferred revenue represents unearned revenue on maintenance contracts. Maintenance contracts include provisions for unspecified when-and-if available product updates and customer telephone support services, and are recognized ratably over the term of the service period. At December 31, 2015 and 2014, amounts in deferred revenue were approximately $376,000 and $429,000, respectively. NOTE M—SEGMENT INFORMATION The Company has determined that its continuing operations are one discrete segment consisting of Biometric products. Geographically, North American sales accounted for approximately 51% and 91% of the Company’s total revenues for 2015 and 2014, respectively. NOTE N—COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Operating Leases The Company does not own any real estate but conducts operations from three leased premises. These non-cancelable operating leases expire at various dates through 2018. In addition to base rent, the Company pays for property taxes, maintenance, insurance and other occupancy expenses according to the terms of the individual leases. 57 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Future minimum rental commitments of non-cancelable operating leases are approximately as follows: Years ending December 31, 2016 2017 2018 147,732 152,364 103,829 403,925 $ Rental expense was approximately $170,000 and $174,000 during 2015 and 2014, respectively. Contingency On or about March 13, 2014, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, Inc. (“LifeSouth”), filed a lawsuit against the Company in the Superior Court of Monmouth County, New Jersey (MON-L-1042-14) alleging a breach of a license agreement and seeking return of all amounts paid under the license in the amount of $718,500. On August 21, 2015, the Company and LifeSouth entered into a settlement agreement to discontinue and end litigation. 58 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. NOTE O— EQUITY 1. Preferred Stock Within the limits and restrictions provided in the Company’s Certificate of Incorporation, the Board of Directors has the authority, without further action by the shareholders, to issue up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, $.0001 par value per share, in one or more series, and to fix, as to any such series, any dividend rate, redemption price, preference on liquidation or dissolution, sinking fund terms, conversion rights, voting rights, and any other preference or special rights and qualifications. As of December 31, 2015, 100,000 shares of preferred stock have been designated as Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock, of which 90,000 shares are issued and outstanding, and 105,000 shares of preferred stock have been designated as Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock, all of which are outstanding. Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock On October 22 and 29, 2015, the Company issued 84,500 shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share, for aggregate gross proceeds of $8,450,000. On November 11, 2015, 5,500 additional shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock were issued at a purchase price of $100.00 per share, for gross cash proceeds of $550,000. Shares of the Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock are convertible at any time at the option of the holder into shares of common stock by dividing the Series A-1 Original Issue Price by an initial conversion price of $0.30 per share, subject to adjustment for stock dividends, stock splits, combinations, and reclassifications of the Company’s capital stock, and subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of the Company’s common stock. The Series A-1 Shares accrue dividends at the rate of 6% per annum payable quarterly on April 1, July, 1, October 1, and January 1 of each year. Until October 1, 2017, the dividends are payable in cash provided that if payment in cash would be prohibited under applicable Delaware corporation law or cause the Company to breach any agreement for borrowed money, such dividends are payable in kind through the issuance of additional shares of common stock having a value equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the Company’s common stock for the ten (10) days preceding the applicable dividend payment date. Commencing January 1, 2018, dividends are payable at the option of the Company in cash or kind through the issuance of additional shares of common valued as described above. The holders of the Series A-1 shares are entitled to designate one person to serve on the Board of Directors of the Company. The holders of the Series A- 1 Shares are entitled to vote on an as converted to common stock basis together with the holders of our common stock on all matters presented to our stockholders. Upon any liquidation or dissolution of the Company, any merger or consolidation involving the Company or any subsidiary of the Company in which the shares of capital stock of the Company outstanding immediately prior to such merger or consolidation do not represent immediately following such merger or consolidation at least a majority of the voting power of the capital stock of the resulting or surviving corporation, or the sale of all or substantially all assets in a single transaction or a series of related transactions, unless the holders of at least a majority of the outstanding Series A-1 Shares elect otherwise, holders of Series A-1 Shares shall be entitled to receive prior to any payment to any holders of the Company’s common stock an amount per share equal to $100.00 per share plus any declared and unpaid dividends (pari-passu with the Series B-1 holders). As at December 31, 2015 $97,392 of dividends were accrued for the holders of the Series A-1 shares. This amount was paid January 6, 2016. The Series A-1 Preferred Stock contains options that b ased on an evaluation of FASB ASC 815-15, “Embedded Derivatives” and FASB ASC 815-40-15, “Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity - Scope and Scope Exceptions,” are considered embedded features: Preferred Stock’s conversion option: The Preferred Stock is convertible at the Holder’s option at any time at the fixed conversion price of $0.30 per share; Quarterly Dividend Conversion Option: From issuance until December 31, 2017, the majority of Holders may elect to have the Stock’s Quarterly dividend payment made in shares of Common Stock, having a value equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the Common Stock during the ten (10) trading day period preceding the applicable dividend payment date. These features were analyzed by the Company and determined that they were not required to be bifurcated from the preferred stock and recorded as derivatives as they are clearly and closely related to an equity host. Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock On November 11, 2015, the Company issued 105,000 shares of Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock at a purchase price of $100.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $10,500,000. Shares of the Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock are convertible at any time at the option of the holder into shares of common stock by dividing the Series B-1 Original Issue Price by an initial conversion price of $0.30 per share, subject to adjustment for stock dividends, stock splits, combinations, and reclassifications of the Company’s capital stock, and subject to a “blocker provision” which prohibits conversion if such conversion would result in the holder being the beneficial owner of in excess of 9.99% of the Company’s common stock. The Series B-1 Shares accrue dividends at the rate of 2.5% per annum payable quarterly on April 1, July, 1, October 1, and January 1 of each year payable in cash provided that if payment in cash would be prohibited under applicable Delaware corporation law or cause the Company to breach any agreement for borrowed money, or if the majority of the outstanding shares of the Series B-1 Shares elect otherwise, such dividends are payable in kind through the issuance of additional shares of common stock having a value equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the Company’s common stock for the ten (10) days preceding the applicable dividend payment date. 59 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The holders of the Series B-1 shares are entitled to designate one person to serve on the Board of Directors of the Company. The holders of the Series B- 1 Shares are entitled to vote on an as converted to common stock basis together with the holders of our common stock on all matters presented to our stockholders. Upon any liquidation or dissolution of the Company, any merger or consolidation involving the Company or any subsidiary of the Company in which the shares of capital stock of the Company outstanding immediately prior to such merger or consolidation do not represent immediately following such merger or consolidation at least a majority of the voting power of the capital stock of the resulting or surviving corporation, or the sale of all or substantially all assets in a single transaction or a series of related transactions, unless the holders of at least a majority of the outstanding Series B-1 Shares elect otherwise, holders of Series B-1 Shares shall be entitled to receive prior to any payment to any holders of the Company’s common stock an amount per share equal to $100.00 per share plus any declared and unpaid dividends (pari-passu with the Series A-1 holders). As at December 31, 2015 $36,459 of dividends were accrued for the holders of the Series B-1 shares. This amount was paid on January 5, 2016. The Series B-1 Preferred Stock contains options that b ased on an evaluation of FASB ASC 815-15, “Embedded Derivatives” and FASB ASC 815-40-15, “Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity - Scope and Scope Exceptions,” are considered embedded features: Preferred Stock’s conversion option: The Preferred Stock is convertible at the Holder’s option at any time at the fixed conversion price of $0.30 per share; Quarterly Dividend Conversion Option: The majority of Holders may elect to have the Stock’s Quarterly dividend payment made in shares of Common Stock, having a value equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the Common Stock during the ten (10) trading day period preceding the applicable dividend payment date. These features were analyzed by the Company and determined that they were not required to be bifurcated from the preferred stock and recorded as derivatives as they are clearly and closely related to an equity host. Stock Issuance Costs Costs of approximately $375,000 were incurred in relation to the issuance of both the Series A-1 and Series B-1 preferred stock. 2. Common Stock Effective February 3, 2015, the Company implemented a reverse stock split of its outstanding common stock at a ratio of 1 - for - 2. The number of authorized shares and the par value of the Company's common stock and preferred stock were not affected by the reverse stock split. Stockholders who otherwise would be entitled to receive fractional shares were rounded up to the nearest whole share. The reverse stock split became effective on the OTCQB at the opening of trading on February 6, 2015. Holders of common stock have equal rights to receive dividends when, as and if declared by the Board of Directors, out of funds legally available therefor. Holders of common stock have one vote for each share held of record and do not have cumulative voting rights. Holders of common stock are entitled, upon liquidation of the Company, to share ratably in the net assets available for distribution, subject to the rights, if any, of holders of any preferred stock then outstanding. Shares of common stock are not redeemable and have no preemptive or similar rights. All outstanding shares of common stock are fully paid and nonassessable. Issuances of Common Stock a) Securities Purchase Agreement dated November 13, 2014 Pursuant to a Securities Purchase Agreement, dated November 13, 2014, by and between the Company and a number of private and institutional investors (the “November 2014 Private Investor SPA”), the Company issued to certain private investors 7,974,999 post-split shares of common stock and warrants to purchase an additional 11,962,501 post-split shares of common stock for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,595,000. In addition, for each share purchased in this offering, the investors surrendered to the Company for cancellation a warrant to acquire one share of our common stock which we previously issued in a private placement transaction in November 2013. This resulted in the cancellation of warrants to purchase an aggregate of 7,974,999 post-split shares of common stock. The common stock has a purchase price reset feature. If at any time prior to the two year anniversary of the effective date of the registration statement covering the public resale of such shares, the Company sells or issues shares of common stock or securities that are convertible into common stock at a price lower than $0.20 per share, the Company will be required to issue additional shares of common stock for no additional consideration. 60 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Based on an evaluation as discussed in FASB ASC 815-15, “Embedded Derivatives” and FASB ASC 815-40-15, “Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity - Scope and Scope Exceptions,” the Company determined that the purchase price reset feature in the common stock issued was not considered indexed to its own stock because neither the occurrence of a sale of equity securities by the issuer at market nor the issuance of another equity contract with a lower strike price is an input to the fair value of a fixed-for-fixed option or forward on equity shares. As such, the purchase price reset feature should be bifurcated from the common stock and accounted for as a derivative liability. The Company valued the purchase price reset feature using a Monte Carlo simulation at the date of issuance, and December 31, 2014, and determined that the purchase price reset feature had no value as the calculated price of the common stock was not below $0.20 per share. At December 31, 2015 the calculated price was below $0.20, however the Company did not value the reset feature based on the issuance of Series A and Series B preferred stock in October and November of 2015, issued at a conversion price of $0.30. The warrants have a term of five years and an exercise price of $0.30 per post-split share. Warrants to purchase 5,981,251 post-split shares of common stock were immediately exercisable. The remaining warrants to purchase 5,981,250 post-split shares of common stock became exercisable on the completion of a 1 - for - 2 reverse split of the Company's common stock in February 2015. The warrants have customary anti-dilution protections including a “full ratchet” anti-dilution adjustment provision which are triggered in the event the Company sells or grants any additional shares of common stock, options ,warrants or other securities that are convertible into common stock at a price lower than $0.30 per share, The anti-dilution adjustment provision is not triggered by certain “exempt issuances” which among other issuances, includes the issuance of shares of common stock, options or other securities to officers, employees, directors, consultants or service providers. The warrants are exercisable on a cashless basis if at any time there is no effective registration statement covering the resale of the shares of common stock underlying the warrants. See below. Based on an evaluation as discussed in FASB ASC 815-15, “Embedded Derivatives” and FASB ASC 815-40-15, “Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity - Scope and Scope Exceptions,” the Company determined that the full ratchet anti-dilution feature in the warrants issued were not considered indexed to its own stock because neither the occurrence of a sale of equity securities by the issuer at market nor the issuance of another equity contract with a lower strike price is an input to the fair value of a fixed-for-fixed option or forward on equity shares. As such, the full ratchet anti-dilution feature should be bifurcated from the warrants and accounted for as a derivative liability. The Company did not value the derivative liability. One of the key determinants of the Company’s decision to not value the derivative liability was the high likelihood that a future financing would not occur that would trigger the down round feature. Whether a future equity financing would occur would be determined by the cash needs of the Company and management’s willingness to trigger the down round feature. The Company’s reason was based on the issuance of Series A and Series B preferred stock in October and November of 2015, issued at a conversion price of $0.30. Under GAAP, the Company is required to mark-to-market the derivative liability at the end of each reporting period. The Company did not value the derivative liability at the date of issuance, December 31, 2014 or December 31, 2015. At such dates, the Company determined that it was highly unlikely that an equity financing would occur that would trigger the down round feature. Such conclusion was based upon the discussion noted above. The Company filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC to register the public resale of 13,956,250 of the shares of common stock issued in the November 2014 Private Investor SPA. The registration statement was declared effective on January 29, 2015. Post reverse split, the Company filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC to register the balance of the shares of common stock issued under the November 2014 Private Investor SPA which was declared effective on May 4, 2015. b) Derivative Liabilities: Securities Purchase Agreements dated October 25, 2013 and November 8, 2013 Pursuant to a series of Private Investors Securities Purchase Agreements (the “PI SPA”), on October 25, 2013 and November 8, 2013, the Company issued to certain private investors an aggregate of 12,323,668 units consisting of 12,323,668 post-split shares of common stock (the “Shares”) and warrants to purchase an additional 12,323,668 post-split shares of common stock (the “Warrants”) for an aggregate purchase price of $3,697,100. The warrants are immediately exercisable at an exercise price of $0.50 per post-split share, have a term of three years, and were exercisable on a cashless basis if at any time following the nine month anniversary of the issuance date, there is not an effective registration statement covering the public resale of the shares of Common Stock underlying the warrants. The Company filed a registration statement on November 22, 2013 and such registration was declared effective on December 31, 2013. 61 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. In connection with the share issuances described above, and pursuant to a placement agency letter agreement, the Company paid the placement agent cash commissions equal to 8% of the gross proceeds of the offering, reimbursed the placement agent for its reasonable out of pocket expenses, and issued to the placement agent warrants (the “Placement Agent Warrants”) to purchase an aggregate of 985,893 post-split shares of common stock. The Placement Agent Warrants have substantially the same terms as the warrants issued to the investors, except the Placement Agent Warrants are immediately exercisable on a cashless basis. The cashless exercise features contained in the warrants are considered to be derivatives and the Company recorded warrant liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet. The Company initially recorded the warrant liabilities equal to their estimated fair value of $325,891. Such amount was also recorded as a reduction of additional paid-in capital. The Company is required to mark-to-market the warrant liabilities at the end of each reporting period. For the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company recorded a gain on the change in fair value of the cashless exercise features of $35,749. As of December 31, 2015, the fair value of the cashless exercise features was $7,478. The fair value of the cashless exercise features was $43,227 as of December 31, 2014. c) Employees’ exercise options During the year ended December 31, 2014, 54,166 stock options were exercised resulting in the cashless issuance of 28,173 post-split shares of common stock. No stock options were exercised during the year ended December 31, 2015. 3. Warrants The Company has issued warrants to certain creditors, investors, investment bankers and consultants. A summary of warrant activity is as follows: Weighted average exercise price Weighted average remaining life (in years) Aggregate intrinsic value Total Warrants Outstanding, as of January 1, 2014 19,334,579 $ 0.52 2.79 Granted Exercised Forfeited Expired Repurchased Outstanding, as of December 31, 2014 Granted Exercised Forfeited Expired Outstanding, as of December 31, 2015 Vested or expected to vest at December 31, 2015 Exercisable at December 31, 2015 11,962,501 (150,000) (7,974,999) (125,000) (4,000,000) 19,047,081 1,408,333 — — — 20,455,414 20,455,414 20,311,664 $ 0.30 0.20 0.50 0.60 0.60 0.37 0.26 — — — 0.37 0.37 0.37 3.91 — 3.02 3.02 3.01 — — — On January 27, 2014, the Company repurchased a warrant for the purchase of 4,000,000 post-split shares of common stock from the Shaar Fund Ltd. at a purchase price of $150,000. The warrant was exercisable at a strike price of $0.60 per post-split share through December 31, 2015. On March 9, 2015, the Company issued a warrant to purchase 575,000 shares of common stock to a consultant which vests in equal quarterly installments over one year and is exercisable at $0.21 per share through March 8, 2020. The fair value of the warrants was initially estimated on the date of grant at $98,065 using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The warrant valuation is required to be mark-to-market at each reporting period, and at December 31, 2015, the fair value was estimated to be $68,035 with the following assumptions: risk free interest rate: 1.58%, expected remaining life of options in years: 4.19, expected dividends: 0, volatility of stock price: 115.9%. 62 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Share based expense related to the value of the stock warrants is recorded over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period for each tranche. For the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company recorded an expense of $51,026 related to the stock warrants. On September 23, 2015, the Company issued a warrant to purchase 833,333 shares of common stock in connection with the issuance of a promissory note. Refer to Note I for details. NOTE P—STOCK OPTIONS 1999 Stock Option Plan During 1999, the Board of Directors of the Company adopted the 1999 Stock Option Plan (the 1999 Plan). The 1999 Plan was not presented to stockholders for approval and thus incentive stock options are not available under the plan. Under the 1999 Plan, 1,000,000 shares of common stock are reserved for issuance to employees, officers, directors, and consultants of the Company at exercise prices which may not be below 85% of fair market value. The term of nonstatutory stock options granted may not exceed ten years. Options issued under the Plan vest pursuant to the terms of stock option agreements with the recipients. In the event of a change in control, as defined, all options outstanding vest immediately. The 1999 Plan expired in August 2009. 2004 Stock Option Plan On October 12, 2004, the Board of Directors of the Company approved the 2004 Stock Option Plan (the 2004 Plan). The 2004 Plan has not yet been presented to stockholders for approval and thus incentive stock options are not available under this plan. Under the terms of this plan, 2,000,000 post-split shares of common stock are reserved for issuance to employees, officers, directors, and consultants of the Company at exercise prices which may not be below 85% of fair market value. The term of stock options granted may not exceed ten years. Options issued under the Plan vest pursuant to the terms of stock option agreements with the recipients. In the event of a change in control, as defined, all options outstanding vest immediately. The Plan expired in October 2014. 2015 Stock Option Plan On January 27, 2016, the shareholders approved the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan (the 2015 Plan). Under the terms of this plan, 8,000,000 post-split shares of common stock are reserved for issuance to employees, officers, directors, and consultants of the Company at exercise prices which may not be below 100- 110% of fair market value. The term of stock options granted may not exceed ten years. Options issued under the Plan vest pursuant to the terms of stock option agreements with the recipients. In the event of a change in control, certain stock awards issued under this plan may be subject to additional acceleration of vesting as may be provided in the participants’ written agreement. The Plan expires in December 2025. Non-Plan Stock Options Periodically, the Company has granted options outside of the 1999 and 2004 Plans to various employees and consultants. In the event of change in control, as defined, certain of the non-plan options outstanding vest immediately. Stock Option Activity Information summarizing option activity is as follows: 1999 Plan 2004 Plan Non Plan Total Number of Options Weighted average exercise price Weighted average remaining life (in years) Aggregate intrinsic value Outstanding, as of December 31, 2013 Granted Exercised Forfeited Expired Outstanding, as of December 31, 2014 Granted Exercised Forfeited Expired Outstanding, as of December 31, 2015 Subject to vesting at December 31, 2015 Exercisable at December 31, 2015 250,000 1,845,304 600,000 2,695,304 $ 0.33 — — — — — (54,166) (129,168) (26,665) 1,835,000 — (225,000) — 1,835,000 (54,166) (354,168) (26,665) 0.39 0.25 0.34 0.29 250,000 1,635,305 2,210,000 4,095,305 $ 0.36 4.45 $ 24,325 — — — — — — (41,667) (573,638) 1,428,000 — (462,585) (66,582) 1,428,000 — (504,252) (640,220) 250,000 1,020,000 3,108,833 4,378,833 $ 3,628,853 $ 1,931,653 $ 63 0.18 0.31 0.25 0.32 0.34 0.38 4.57 $ 4.22 $ 2.94 $ 240 129 0 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The options outstanding and exercisable at December 31, 2015 were in the following exercise price ranges: Range of exercise prices - - - - 0.15 0.41 0.80 0.15 0.40 0.79 0.92 0.92 $ $ Options Outstanding Weighted average exercise price Weighted average remaining life (in years) Number of shares 2,893,000 $ 1,280,833 205,000 4,378,833 0.24 0.41 0.90 4.68 5.18 1.02 Options Exercisable Weighted average exercise price 0.28 0.41 0.90 Number exercisable 1,244,167 $ 482,486 205,000 1,931,653 The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total intrinsic value, based on the Company’s closing stock price of $0.16 as of December 31, 2015, which would have been received by the option holders had all option holders exercised their options as of that date. The total number of in-the-money options exercisable as of December 31, 2015 was 0. The weighted average fair value of options granted during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 was $0.14 and $0.32 per share, respectively. The total intrinsic value of options exercised during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 was $0 and 14,650, respectively. The total fair value of shares vested during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 was $265,247 and $143,382 respectively. As of December 31, 2015, future compensation cost related to nonvested stock options is $318,177 and will be recognized over an estimated weighted average period of 1.50 years. NOTE Q—INCOME TAXES There was no provision for federal or state taxes as at December 31, 2015 and 2014. The Company has deferred taxes due to income tax credits, net operating loss carryforwards, and the effect of temporary differences between the carrying values of certain assets and liabilities for financial reporting and income tax purposes. Significant components of deferred taxes are as follows at December 31: Current asset: Accrued compensation Accounts receivable allowance Non-current asset (liability): Stock-based compensation Basis differences in fixed assets Basis differences in intangible assets Net operating loss and credit carryforwards Valuation allowances 2015 2014 $ 75,000 $ 5,000 88,000 8,000 258,000 (16,000) 55,000 17,994,000 (18,372,000) 174,000 (26,000) (63,000) 17,540,000 (17,721,000) $ — $ — 64 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The Company has a valuation allowance against the full amount of its net deferred taxes due to the uncertainty of realization of the deferred tax assets due to operating loss history of the Company. The Company currently provides a valuation allowance against deferred taxes when it is more likely than not that some portion, or all of its deferred tax assets will not be realized. The valuation allowance could be reduced or eliminated based on future earnings and future estimates of taxable income. Similarly, income tax benefits related to stock options exercised have not been recognized in the financial statements. As of December 31, 2015, the Company has federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $50,700,000 subject to expiration between 2019 and 2035. These net operating loss carryforwards are subject to the limitations under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code due to changes in the equity ownership of the Company. A reconciliation of the effective income tax rate on operations reflected in the Statements of Operations to the US Federal statutory income tax rate is presented below. Federal statutory income tax rate Permanent differences Effect of net operating loss Effective tax rate 2015 2014 34% — (34) —% 34% —) (34) —% The Company has not been audited by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or any states in connection with income taxes. The Company files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction and various state jurisdictions. The periods from 2012 through 2015 remain open to examination by the IRS and state jurisdictions. The Company believes it is not subject to any tax audit risk beyond those periods. The Company’s policy is to recognize interest and penalties accrued on any unrecognized tax benefits as a component of income tax expense. The Company does not have any accrued interest or penalties associated with any unrecognized tax benefits, nor was any significant interest expense recognized during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014. NOTE R—PROFIT SHARING PLAN The Company has established a savings plan under section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. All employees of the Company, after completing one day of service are eligible to enroll in the 401(k) plan. Participating employees may elect to defer a portion of their salary on a pre-tax basis up to the limits as provided by the IRS Code. The Company is not required to match employee contributions but may do so at its discretion. The Company made no contributions during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014. NOTE S—EARNINGS PER SHARE (EPS) The Company’s basic EPS is calculated using net income (loss) available to common shareholders and the weighted-average number of shares outstanding during the reporting period. Diluted EPS includes the effect from potential issuance of common stock, such as stock issuable pursuant to the exercise of stock options and warrants and the assumed conversion of preferred stock. The reconciliation of the numerator of the basic and diluted EPS calculations, due to the inclusion of preferred stock dividends was as follows for the following fiscal years ended December 31: Basic Numerator: Loss from continuing operations Convertible preferred stock dividends Net loss available to common stockholders (basic and diluted EPS) 65 2015 2014 $ $ (1,857,306) $ (133,851) (1,991,157) $ (1,883,572) - (1,883,572) EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. The following table summarizes the weighted average securities that were excluded from the diluted per share calculation because the effect of including these potential shares was antidilutive. Preferred stock Stock options Warrants Potentially dilutive securities Years ended December 31, 2014 2015 10,309,132 55,664 - - 516,214 2,013,491 10,364,796 2,529,705 Items excluded from the diluted per share calculation because the exercise price was greater than the average market price of the common shares: Stock options Warrants Total NOTE T—SUBSEQUENT EVENTS Years ended December 31, 2014 2014 2,838,333 20,455,414 1,615,000 7,084,580 23,293,747 8,699,580 On January 27, 2016, holders of common stock, Series A-1 Preferred Stock, and Series B-1 Preferred Stock approved a proposal to effect a reverse split of the Company’s issued and outstanding common stock at a ratio between 1-for-4 and 1-for-12, with the final decision of whether to proceed with the reverse stock split and the exact ratio and timing of the reverse split to be determined by the board of directors, in its discretion, no later than December 30, 2016. The Company has reviewed subsequent events through the date of this filing. 66 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized. Date: March 30, 2016 BIO-KEY INTERNATIONAL, INC. By: /s/ MICHAEL W. DEPASQUALE Michael W. DePasquale CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (Principal Executive Officer) Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities on the dates indicated. Signature /s/ MICHAEL W. DEPASQUALE Michael W. DePasquale /s/ CECILIA WELCH Cecilia Welch Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and Director (Principal Executive Officer) Title Chief Financial Officer (Principal Accounting Officer) /s/ JOHN SCHOENHERR Director John Schoenherr /s/ CHARLES P. ROMEO Director Charles P. Romeo /s/ THOMAS E. BUSH III Thomas E. Bush /s/ THOMAS GILLEY Thomas Gilley Director Director /s/ WONG KWOK FONG Director Wong Kwok Fong /s/ YAO JIANHUI Yao Jianhui Director 67 Date March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 March 30, 2016 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Exhibit No. Exhibit EXHIBIT INDEX 3.1 Certificate of Incorporation of BIO-key International, Inc., a Delaware corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the current report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 5, 2005) 3.2 Bylaws (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.3 to the current report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 5, 2005) 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Certificate of Amendment to Certificate of Incorporation (incorporated by reference to Appendix A to the definitive proxy statement, filed with the SEC on January 18, 2006) Certificate of Amendment of Certificate of Incorporation of Bio-key International, Inc., a Delaware corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.4 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2015) Certificate of Elimination of BIO-key International, Inc. filed October 6, 2015 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.5 to the registration statement on Form S-1 File No. 333-208747 filed with the SEC on December 23, 2015) Certificate of Designation of Preferences, Rights and Limitations of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the current report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on November 2, 2015) Certificate of Designation of Preferences, Rights and Limitations of Series B-1 Convertible Preferred Stock (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 16, 2015) 4.1 Specimen Stock Certificate (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the registration statement on Form SB-2, File No. 333-16451) 5.1 10.1 10.2 10.3 Opinion of Fox Rothschild LLP (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 5.1 to the registration statement on Form S-1 File No. 333-208747 filed with the SEC on December 23, 2015) SAC Technologies, Inc. 1999 Stock Option Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.24 to the annual report on Form 10-KSB, filed with the SEC on April 14, 2000) Employment Agreement by and between BIO-key International, Inc. and Mira LaCous dated November 20, 2001 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.39 to the current report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 22, 2002) BIO-key International, Inc. 2004 Stock Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.48 to amendment no. 1 the registrant’s registration statement on Form SB-2, File No. 33-120104, filed with the SEC on December 14, 2004) 10.4 Options to Purchase 50,000 and 32,620 Shares of Common Stock issued to Charles Romeo (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.78 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2009) 10.5 Options to Purchase 50,000 and 48,930 Shares of Common Stock issued to John Schoenherr incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.79 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2009) 10.6 Option to Purchase 500,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to Michael W. DePasquale (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.84 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2009) 10.7 Option to Purchase 50,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to Charles Romeo (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.87 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2009) 10.8 Option to Purchase 100,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to John Schoenherr (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.88 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2009) 10.9 Employment Agreement, effective March 25, 2010, by and between the Company and Michael W. DePasquale (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.93 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 26, 2010) 68 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved.  10.10 Omnibus Amendment and Waiver Agreement, dated as of December 30, 2010, by and between the Company and InterAct911 Mobile Systems, Inc., and SilkRoad Equity, LLC (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.40 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 23, 2011 ) 10.11 Note Purchase Agreement, dated February 26, 2013, by and between the Company and DRNC Holdings, Inc. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on May 15, 2013) 10.12 Securities Purchase Agreement, dated February 26, 2013, by and between the Company and DRNC Holdings, Inc. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on May 15, 2013) 10.13 Form of Securities Purchase Agreement, dated February 26, 2013, by and between the Company and certain investors (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on May 15, 2013) 10.14 Form of Securities Purchase Agreement, dated July 23, 2013, by and between the Company and certain investors (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.29 to the registration statement on Form S-1, filed with the SEC on July 26, 2013) 10.15 Form of Warrant (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.30 to the registration statement on Form S-1, filed with the SEC on July 26, 2013) 10.16 Form of Securities Purchase Agreement by and between the Company and certain investors dated October 25, 2013 and November 8, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2013) 10.17 Form of Investor Warrant by and between the Company and certain investors dated October 25, 2013 and November 8, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2013) 10.18 Form of Registration Rights Agreement by and between the Company and certain investors dated October 25, 2013 and November 8, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2013) 10.19 Form of Supplement to Securities Purchase Agreement by and between the Company and certain investors dated November 8, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2013) 10.20 Option to Purchase 25,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to Charles Romeo (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.35 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.21 Option to Purchase 25,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to John Schoenherr (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.36 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.22 Option to Purchase 500,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to Michael W. DePasquale (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.37 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.23 Option to Purchase 62,500 Shares of Common Stock issued to Mira LaCous (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.40 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.24 Option to Purchase 150,000 Shares of Common Stock issued to Cecilia Welch (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.41 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.25 Employment Agreement by and between BIO-key International, Inc. and Cecilia Welch dated May 15, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.42 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.26 Third Amendment to Lease Agreement by and between BIO-key International, Inc. and Victor AOP, Inc. dated June 30, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.43 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 10.27 First Amendment to Lease Agreement by and between BIO-key International, Inc. and BRE/DP MN LLC dated September 12, 2013 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.44 to the annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2014) 69 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. 10.28 Form of Securities Purchase Agreement by and between the Company and certain investors dated November 13, 2014 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2014) 10.29 Form of Investor Warrant, by and between the Company and certain investors dated November 13, 2014 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2014) 10.30 Form of Registration Rights Agreement by and between the Company and certain investors dated November 13, 2014 (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 14, 2014) 10.31 Form of Convertible Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the current report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on November 2, 2015) 10.32 Form of Registration Rights Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the current report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on November 2, 2015) 10.33 Form of Securities Purchase Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 16, 2015) 10.34 Form of Registration Rights Agreement (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to the quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on November 16, 2015) 70 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. 10.35 BIO-key International, Inc. 2015 Equity Incentive Plan (incorporated by reference to Appendix A to the definitive proxy statement filed with the SEC on December 15, 2015) 10.36 Software License Purchase Agreement Dated November 11, 2015 by and among BIO-key Hong Kong Limited, Shining Union Limited, WWTT Technology China, Golden Vast Macao Commercial Offshore Limited, Giant Leap International Limited (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.36 to the registration statement on Form S-1 File No. 333-208747 filed with the SEC on December 23, 2015)** List of subsidiaries of BIO-key International, Inc. 21.1* 23.1* Consent of RMSBG 31.1* Certification of the Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 31.2* Certification of the Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 32.1* Certification of the Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 32.2* Certification of the Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 101.INS* XBRL Instance 101.SCH* XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema 101.CAL* XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation 101.DEF* XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition 101.LAB* XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels 101.PRE* XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation * filed herewith ** Confidential treatment has been requested with respect to certain portions of this exhibit. Omitted sections have been Exchange Commission. filed separately with the Securities and EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Subsidiaries Exhibit 21.1 Name Public Safety Group, Inc. BIO-key Hong Kong Limited State of Incorporation Delaware Hong Kong EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm Exhibit 23.1 We consent to the incorporation by reference into the registration statement of BIO-key International, Inc. on Form S-8 (file no. 333-137414) of our report dated March 30, 2016 relating to the financial statements which appear in this Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015. /s/ ROTENBERG MERIL SOLOMON BERTIGER & GUTTILLA, P.C. ROTENBERG MERIL SOLOMON BERTIGER & GUTTILLA, P.C. Saddle Brook, New Jersey March 30, 2016 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. CERTIFICATION OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER PURSUANT TO SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT RULES 13a-14(a) AND 15d-14(a), AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002 Exhibit 31.1 I, Michael W. DePasquale, certify that: 1. 2. 3. 4. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K of BIO-key International, Inc. (the “Company”); Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report; Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company as of, and for, the periods presented in this report; The Company’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) for the Company and have: (a) (b) (c) (d) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the Company, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared; Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles; Evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and Disclosed in this report any change in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the Company’s most recent fiscal quarter (the company’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the company’s internal control over financial reporting; 5. The Company’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the Company’s auditors and the audit committee of the Company’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions): (a) (b) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the Company’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Date: March 30, 2016 /s/ MICHAEL W. DEPASQUALE Michael W. DePasquale Chief Executive Officer EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. CERTIFICATION OF CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER PURSUANT TO SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT RULES 13a-14(a) AND 15d-14(a), AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002 Exhibit 31.2 I, Cecilia Welch, certify that: 1. 2. 3. 4. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K of BIO-key International, Inc. (the “Company”); Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report; Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company as of, and for, the periods presented in this report; The Company’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) for the Company and have: (a) (b) (c) (d) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the Company, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared; Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles; Evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and Disclosed in this report any change in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the Company’s most recent fiscal quarter (the company’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the company’s internal control over financial reporting; 5. The Company’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the Company’s auditors and the audit committee of the Company’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions): (a) (b) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the Company’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Date: March 30, 2016 /s/ CECILIA WELCH Cecilia Welch Chief Financial Officer EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO 18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002 Exhibit 32.1 In connection with the Annual Report of BIO-key International, Inc. (the “Company”) on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2015, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I, Michael W. DePasquale, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that, to my knowledge: (1) (2) The Report fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and The information contained in the Report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and result of operations of the Company. BIO-KEY INTERNATIONAL, INC. By: /s/ MICHAEL W. DEPASQUALE Michael W. DePasquale Chief Executive Officer Date: March 30, 2016 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO 18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002 Exhibit 32.2 In connection with the Annual Report of BIO-key International, Inc. (the “Company”) on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2015, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I, Cecilia Welch, Chief Financial Officer of the Company, certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that, to my knowledge: (1) (2) The Report fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and The information contained in the Report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and result of operations of the Company. BIO-KEY INTERNATIONAL, INC. By: /s/ CECILIA WELCH Cecilia Welch Chief Financial Officer Date: March 30, 2016 EDGAR Stream is a copyright of Issuer Direct Corporation, all rights reserved. 

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