NYSE ISSUES DELISTING WARNING TO VAPOTHERM

Vapotherm, the medical equipment manufacturer in Exeter, earlier this month received a delisting warning from the New York Stock Exchange for not meeting capital and equity requirements, The notice comes after years of losses, including $65 million in the first half of this year, a declining stock price, renegotiation of its financing arrangement to shore up its relocation of manufacturing operations to Mexico to increase profitability. The company went public in 2018.

The NYSE told Vapotherm that it failed to meet the capitalization standard for the prior 30 trading days and that its stockholder equity was less than $50 million, according to an Oct. 3 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The NYSE gave Vapotherm 45 days to correct the deficiencies. In the meantime, the company’s stock will be traded with the ticker VAPO. BC, to indicate the company is out of compliance with NYSE listing standards.

One reason Vapotherm has fallen short is that its share prices have plummeted.

The stock price peaked at $54 a share in July 2020 at the height of the pandemic. But its price has fallen below $1.50.

The sales falloff is tied to the easing of the pandemic, according to SEC filings. The omicron variant wasn’t nearly as virulent as expected, so Vapotherm’s equipment wasn’t needed as widely as it had been. The relatively mild flu season also contributed to a decline in revenue. Finally, the company’s other major product — an Oxygen Assist Module, which can automatically maintain a patient’s pulse oxygen saturation levels within a specified range for a defined period of time — has yet to be approved for use in the United States.

CONNECTION CHARGES IBM WITH FAILED SOFTWARE UPGRADE

IBM botched a $9.2 million contract to upgrade Merrimack-based Connection’s financial software, disrupting the tech vendor’s business and causing it to lose “millions of dollars,” according to a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Concord.

The suit squares off two publicly traded technology firms: Connection, with annual revenue of just under $3 billion, with IBM, which has over $57 billion in revenue.

According to the suit, Connection contracted with IBM in 2017 to implement a new enterprise resource planning system, which companies rely on to manage customer purchasing, billing order fulfillment, financial accounting, inventory tracking and payment/credit card processing.

Connection contends it spent almost 81,000 hours fixing the deficiencies and that the disruptions cost the company to lose both customers and revenue. It charges IBM with eight counts, including breach of contract, professional negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, and violation of the NH Consumer Protection Act and asks for unspecified damages.

Connection attorney Christopher Carter of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, declined comment at deadline. IBM’s attorney hadn’t put in a court appearance at deadline, but the company released the following statement: “IBM rejects every allegation in the complaint and will defend itself vigorously in this case.”

SPORTSVISIO ANNOUNCES $3.1 MILLION IN SEED FUNDING FOR SPORTS AI TECHNOLOGY

SportsVisio, a Manchester developer of sports artificial intelligence technology, has announced that it recently closed a $3.1 million seed round.

The funding, led by Hyperplane Venture Capital, will be used toward scaling the company’s Computer Vision AI technology to automate statistics, analytics and video highlights for sports, starting with basketball, it said.

SportsVisio says its AI technology can automatically understand and track a wide variety of basketball statistics instantly, which athletes, coaches and fans can access for insights about player and team performance, along with “easily shareable content on social media,” said SportsVisio Founder and CEO Jason Syversen.