Organization and Nature of Business

Genius Brands International, Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our”, “GBI” or the “Company”) is a global content and brand management company dedicated to providing entertaining and enriching “content and products with a purpose” for toddlers to tweens. Led by industry veterans Andrew Heyward (Chief Executive Officer) and Amy Moynihan Heyward (President), the Company produces original content and licenses the rights to that content to a variety of partners. Our licensees include (i) companies to which the audio-visual rights are licensed for exhibition in various formats such as Pay Television, Free or Broadcast Television, Video-on-Demand (“VOD”), subscription on demand (“SVOD”), DVDs/CDs and more and (ii) companies that develop and distribute products based on our content within different product categories such as toys, electronics, publishing, home goods, stationary, gifts, and more.

The Company owns a portfolio of original children’s entertainment that is targeted at toddlers to teens including the award-winning Baby Genius, Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club, Thomas Edison's Secret Lab and Stan Lee's Mighty 7, the first project from Stan Lee Comics, LLC, a joint venture with legendary Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment.

In addition to the Company’s wholly-owned brands, it also acts as licensing agent for certain brands, leveraging its existing licensing infrastructure to expand these brands into new product categories, new retailers, and new territories. These include the best-selling children’s book series, Llama Llama; Psycho Bunny, a luxury apparel line; From Frank, a humor greeting card and product line; Celessence Technologies, the world's leading microencapsulation company.

The Company commenced operations in January 2006, assuming all of the rights and obligations of its then Chief Executive Officer, under an Asset Purchase Agreement between the Company and Genius Products, Inc., in which the Company obtained all rights, copyrights, and trademarks to the brands “Baby Genius,” “Little Genius,” “Kid Genius,” “123 Favorite Music” and “Wee Worship,” and all then existing productions under those titles. In October 2011, the Company (i) changed its domicile to Nevada from California, and (ii) changed its name to Genius Brands International, Inc. from Pacific Entertainment Corporation (the “Reincorporation”). In connection with the Reincorporation, the Company changed its trading symbol from “PENT” to “GNUS”.

On November 15, 2013, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (the “Merger Agreement”) with A Squared Entertainment LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“A Squared”), A Squared Holdings LLC, a California limited liability company and sole member of A Squared (the “Parent Member”) and A2E Acquisition LLC, its newly formed, wholly-owned Delaware subsidiary (“Acquisition Sub”). Upon closing of the transactions contemplated under the Merger Agreement (the “Merger”), which occurred concurrently with entering into the Merger Agreement, the Acquisition Sub merged with and into A Squared, and A Squared, as the surviving entity, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.  As a result of the Merger, the Company acquired the business and operations of A Squared.

On April 2, 2014, the Company filed a certificate of amendment to its Articles of Incorporation to affect a reverse split of our issued and outstanding common stock on a one-for-one-hundred basis. The reverse stock split was effective with FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) on April 7, 2014 (the “Reverse Split”). All per share amounts referenced herein are reflective of the Reverse Split. 

Strategic Initiatives

During 2014, the Company began a series of strategic initiatives to restructure certain areas of business in an effort to operate more profitably in the long run. This included product sales, content distribution, production, and product development:

Liquidity

Historically, the Company has incurred net losses. As of December 31, 2014, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $21,152,654 and a total stockholders’ equity of $13,720,248. At December 31, 2014, the Company had current assets of $4,738,898, including cash of $4,301,099 and current liabilities of $2,224,766, including short-term debt to related parties which bears no interest and has no stated maturity of $411,008 and certain trade payables of $925,000 to which the Company disputes the claim, resulting in working capital of $2,514,132. For the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company reported a net loss of $3,728,599 and $7,216,031, respectively, and reported net cash used by operating activities during year ended December 31, 2014 of $2,481,988.

During 2014, the Company received proceeds from the issuance of common stock, the issuance of Series A Convertible Preferred Shares, the execution of a long-term, exclusive supply chain services agreement, and the execution music advance agreements. Additionally subsequent to the end of the year, the Company received the second payment pursuant to its long term supply chain services agreement. While the Company believes that these funds will be sufficient to fund operations for the next twelve months, there can be no assurance that cash flows from operations will continue to improve in the near future. If the Company is unable to attain profitable operations and positive operating cash flows, it may need to (i) seek additional funding, (ii) scale back its development plans, or (iii) reduce certain operations.