SEC Company Response from BLONDER TONGUE LABORATORIES INC (BDRL) (CIK 0001000683) — Jul 18, 2005
BLONDER TONGUE LABORATORIES INC (BDRL) (CIK 0001000683)
Date: July 18, 2005 · CIK: 0001000683 · Accession: 0000950159-05-000823
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Referenced dates: June 7, 2005, June 7, 2005
Show Raw Text
CORRESP
1
filename1.htm
Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc Correspondence
BLONDER
TONGUE LABORATORIES, INC.
One
Jake Brown Road
Old
Bridge, New Jersey 08857
July
18,
2005
VIA
EDGAR TRANSMISSION
Larry
Spirgel, Assistant Director
Securities
and Exchange Commission
Mail
Stop
0407
Washington,
DC 20549
Re:
Blonder
Tongue Laboratories, Inc.
Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 and
Form
10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2005
File
No. 1-14120
Dear
Mr.
Spirgel:
This
letter will serve as a response to each of your comments regarding the
above-referenced Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 and
Form
10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 of Blonder Tongue Laboratories,
Inc.
(the “Company”) contained in your letter dated June 7, 2005. Attached to this
response letter as an addendum is a draft Amendment No. 1 to Form 10-K for
the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 (“Draft Form 10-K/A”), the form of which the
Company proposes to file with the SEC following its review and analysis of
this
response letter.
For
your
convenience, we have numbered each of our responses to correspond to the
comment
of the same number contained in your comment letter dated June 7,
2005.
Form
10-K for the Fiscal Year ended December 31, 2004
Management’s
Discussion and Analysis
1. The
requested disclosure has been included on pages 17, 18 and 22 of the Draft
Form
10-K/A.
2. The
requested disclosure has been included on page 18 of the Draft Form 10-K/A.
Note
1
- Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
3. The
Company has accounted for its 50% economic interest in Blonder Tongue Telephone,
LLC (“BTT”) and NetLinc Communications, LLC (“NetLinc”) using the equity method
due to its lack of substantive participating rights in BTT and NetLinc. For
example, the Company only owns 49% of the outstanding membership shares of
BTT
while the other member
Larry
Spirgel, Assistant Director
July
18, 2005
Page
2
("Majority
Member") owns the remaining 51% of the outstanding memberships shares. While
the
Company and the Majority Member share economic rights on an equal
basis,
BTT has a Manager that manages, controls, administers and operates the business
and affairs of BTT, which Manager is appointed by a majority vote of the
members. Given that the Company only has a 49% voting interest in BTT, it
cannot
appoint or remove this Manager, who controls the day to day operations of
BTT.
Moreover, this Manager is a controlling member of the Majority Member of
BTT.
While certain actions on behalf of BTT require a unanimous vote of members,
these matters are protective in nature such as creating a new class of
membership interest, approving a change of control of BTT or a change in
the
nature of business of BTT. NetLinc has a similar structure such that the
Company
does not have substantive participating rights in the day to day operations,
but
merely has protective rights with regard to certain extraordinary corporate
actions (see details of this structure on page 40 of the Draft Form 10-K/A).
It
should also be noted that the Company has a 50% interest in NetLinc and not
a
90% interest as referenced in your comment letter. Based on these facts,
consolidation of BTT and NetLinc is not required pursuant to EITF 96-16 and
EITF
04-5. The Company has revised its disclosure on page 40 of the Draft Form
10-K/A
to include disclosure of the Company’s and the other parties’ rights in these
entities.
4. The
requested disclosure has been included on page 40 (Note 1(a)) and page 56
(Note
13) of the Draft Form 10-K/A.
5. Given
that the Company licenses products from Philips and makes payments to Philips,
there are no revenue recognition issues related to Staff Accounting Bulletin
104. Nevertheless, the Company has included disclosure on page 46 of the
Draft
Form 10-K/A regarding the Company’s accounting policy with regard to royalty and
license expense.
General
6. As
noted
in response #3 above, use of the equity method is appropriate. Accordingly,
the
Company has included as Exhibit 99.1 to the Draft Form 10-K/A audited financial
statements of BTT pursuant to Rule 3-09 of Regulation S-X.
Form
10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2005
Note
5
- Debt, page 8
7. In
March,
2004, the Company’s credit agreement with Commerce Bank was amended to suspend
the applicability of the cash flow coverage ratio covenant until March 31,
2005
and impose a new covenant requiring the Company to achieve certain levels
of
consolidated pre-tax income on a quarterly basis commencing with the first
fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2004. This amendment was made so that the
Company
would not be in violation of the cash flow coverage ratio covenant as of
March
31, 2004 and eliminated the applicability of such financial covenant for
all
periods until March 31, 2005. In March, 2005, this credit agreement was amended
again to waive the applicability of the consolidated pre-tax income requirement
as of December 31, 2004, create new consolidated pre-tax income requirements
for
Larry
Spirgel, Assistant Director
July
18, 2005
Page
3
each
quarter starting in March 31, 2005 and suspend the applicability of the cash
flow coverage ratio until March 31, 2006.
The
Company was in compliance with the consolidated pre-tax income covenant for
the
fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2004 and September 30, 2004. While the Company
was not in compliance with this covenant for the fiscal quarters ending June
30,
2004, December 31, 2004 and March 31, 2005, the Company received waivers
of such
non-compliance each quarter so that the debt was not callable. It should
be
noted that this covenant is only measured on a quarterly basis (not annual)
and
the amount differs from quarter to quarter and, therefore, a non-compliance
in
one quarter does not directly impact the calculation for any subsequent quarter.
Since this covenant on pre-tax income was measured quarterly, at the time
of
each waiver the Company believed it would be in compliance with the covenant
for
the next 12 months based on its projections. Accordingly, this treatment
is in
compliance with SFAS 78 and EITF 86-30.
In
connection with this response to your comments, the Company acknowledges
that:
·
the
Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure
in
its filings;
·
staff
comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments
do not
foreclose the SEC from taking any action with respect to the filing;
and
·
the
Company may not assert staff comments as a defense in any proceeding
initiated by the SEC or any person under the federal securities
laws of
the United States.
Should
the Staff have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the
undersigned.
Respectively
submitted,
/s/
Eric
Skolnik
Eric
Skolnik,
Senior
Vice President - Finance
and
Chief
Financial Officer
cc: James
Luksch, Chairman and CEO
Draft
July
18, 2005
FORM
10-K/A
AMENDMENT
NO. 1
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON,
D.C. 20549
[X]
ANNUAL
REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE
ACT OF
1934 FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2004,
OR
[
]
TRANSITION
REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE
ACT OF
1934 FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM ___________________ to
__________________
Commission
file number: 1-14120
BLONDER
TONGUE LABORATORIES, INC.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware
52-1611421
(State
or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
(I.R.S.
Employer Identification No.)
One
Jake Brown Road, Old Bridge, New Jersey
08857
(Address
of principal executive offices)
(Zip
Code)
Registrant’s
telephone number, including area code: (732)
679-4000
Securities
registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title
of each class
Name
of Exchange on which registered
Common
Stock, Par Value $.001
American
Stock Exchange
Securities
registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to
be
filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during
the
preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required
to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements
for
the past 90 days. Yes X
No
Indicate
by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of
Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best
of 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. [ X ]
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined by
Rule
12b-2 of the Act). Yes
No
X
The
aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant
at June 30, 2004: $11,280,369.
Number
of
shares of common stock, par value $.001, outstanding as of March 19, 2005:
8,002,406.
Documents
incorporated by reference:
Certain
portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting
of Stockholders to be held on May 24, 2005 (which is expected to be filed with
the Commission not later than 120 days after the end of the registrant’s last
fiscal year) are incorporated by reference into Part III of this report.
1
Forward-Looking
Statements
In
addition to historical information, this Annual Report of Blonder Tongue
Laboratories, Inc. (“Blonder
Tongue”
or the “Company”)
contains forward-looking statements relating to such matters as anticipated
financial performance, business prospects, technological developments, new
products, research and development activities and similar matters. The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for
forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe
harbor, the Company notes that a variety of factors could cause the Company’s
actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results
or other expectations expressed in the Company’s forward-looking statements. The
risks and uncertainties that may affect the operation, performance, development
and results of the Company’s business include, but are not limited to, those
matters discussed herein in the sections entitled Item 1 - Business, Item
3 -
Legal Proceedings, Item 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operations and Risk Factors. The words “believe”,
“expect”, “anticipate”, “project” and similar expressions identify
forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on
these forward-looking statements, which reflect management’s analysis only as of
the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise
these
forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise
after
the date hereof. Readers should carefully review the risk factors described
herein and in other documents the Company files from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Explanatory
Note
The
Company is filing this Amendment No. 1 to its Annual Report on Form
10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2004 (this “Form
10-K/A”)
to include as Exhibit 99.1 certain audited financial information
required
under the Securities and Exchange Commission's (“SEC”)
rules, related to Blonder Tongue Telephone, LLC ("BTT"),
of which the Company owns a 50% economic interest (“BTT
Financial Statements”).
The Company has also expanded or revised certain disclosures in response
to
comments received from the SEC after its periodic review of the Company’s Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004. These
changes consist primarily of expanded disclosure in (i) Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations
related to the inventory reserve and bad debt expense, and (ii) Notes
1 and 13
to the Company’s Financial Statements related to the Company’s interest in BTT,
NetLinc Communications, LLC and BDR Broadband, LLC, along with the
Company’s
accounting policy for royalty and license fees.
In
accordance with Rule 12b-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
the
following Items of the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December
31, 2004 are being amended in their entirety: Item 7 - Management’s Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations; Item
8 -
Financial Statements and Supplementary Data; and Item 15 - Exhibits
and
Financial Statement S