Minim, a maker of Motorola-branded cable modems, is in trouble

Something's amiss at Minim.

Minim, which sells Motorola-branded cable modems and gateways at retail alongside a software-powered home network management platform, laid off about 78% of its staff in September amid a severe cash crunch.

It's not clear what's next for the Manchester, New Hampshire-based supplier, but its website is down as of this writing. Minim's phones are still ringing (though no one is answering), and its products are still being sold online at outlets such as Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and via a section dedicated to cable modems at Motorola.com.

In recent weeks, Minim has alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that there's "substantial doubt" that the company can go on without an influx of fresh capital.

Minim's situation has been in flux for months amid changes on the board of directors and in its executive suite.

Minim.com is down and in the hands of Internet domain registry GoDaddy. (Source: Screen capture taken November 16, 2023)

Minim CEO Mehul Patel stepped down in April, and his duties were taken over by Jeremy Hitchcock, Minim's founder, chairman and former CEO. Minim announced in August that CFO Dustin Tacker resigned to pursue new career opportunities.

It was also around that time that Minim executed a 25:1 reverse stock split. Minim shares were down 4 cents (-5.82%) to $0.65 each in afternoon trading Wednesday.

Mass layoff

Related:Minim first to get CableLabs stamp for low-latency DOCSIS 3.1 device

On September 5, Minim disclosed that board director George Kassas resigned from the post effective September 15.

In the same 8-K filing, Minim revealed that it was laying off 78% of its workforce – going from 41 full-time employees to nine – and effectively eliminating the teams and operations associated with hardware and software engineering, product management and development, sales and marketing, and technical support.

Minim said the move was necessary to reduce its cash outlay as the company explored "strategic options" that could lead to the sale of assets and other measures or transactions it could pursue under a potential bankruptcy.

Mystery investor

Later in September, Minim disclosed that it struck a non-binding letter of intent under which an unidentified investor would purchase $2.4 million of convertible preferred stock and warrants to settle Minim's liabilities. In turn, that investor could become CEO of Minim and take over a board made up of his or her nominees. No additional filings indicate that this idea has gone beyond the proposal stage.

If Minim does shut down for good or fails to find a buyer of its assets, it will reduce the number of companies that sell DOCSIS modems and gateways at retail. Others that remain in the DOCSIS modem retail mix include CommScope (under the Arris SURFboard brand), Hitron and Netgear. CommScope is in the process of selling its customer premises equipment business to Vantiva. Vantiva has made no commitment to retain or grow the retail piece of CommScope's CPE business.

Related:DOCSIS 4.0 'absolutely on the roadmap' at Minim

Tough sledding

On Wednesday this week, Minim filed a document with the SEC that the company would not file a financial report for the quarter ended September 30, 2023 within a five-day extension period "without unreasonable effort or expense." Minim has engaged BF Borgers, an independent accounting firm, to handle the company's fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Update: Minim's listing on the Nasdaq market is now in jeopardy. On Monday (November 20), Minim disclosed in an SEC filing that Nasdaq has informed the company that it has 60 calendar days to submit a plan to come into compliance with Nasdaq rules due to Minim's inability to timely file its 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2023. Nasdaq may grant an exception of up to 180 days for Minim to regain compliance. "The Company is working diligently to complete the Form 10-Q and anticipates filing the Form 10-Q as soon as it is able," Minim said. Minim's stock opened Tuesday at 83 cents per share.

Minim's financial situation looked dire through the first half of 2023. As of June 30, 2023, Minim reported having cash and cash equivalents of $300,000, $2.4 million of outstanding borrowings on its asset-based credit line and an accumulated deficit of $84.5 million. The company also reported having just $25,000 available on a $10 million line of credit with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and working capital of $6.3 million. Minim's SVB loan is secured by nearly all the company's assets except Minim's intellectual property, the company said.

Minim, which uplisted to the Nasdaq more than two years ago, generated net sales of $5.7 million in Q3, down 44.1% year-over-year, citing decreased sales of Motorola-branded cable modems and gateways. Minim's software-as-a-service offerings, which include a home network management platform, have not been much of a contributor, generating just $72,000 in Q3, down 49.3% year-over-year. Minim also saw sharp decreases in sales of DSL and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) products.

Mum's the word at Minim

Hitchcock did not immediately respond to messages from Light Reading regarding the status and expected fate of Minim. Light Reading has also reached out to Jason Angel, currently listed on LinkedIn as Minim's chief of staff.

Hitchcock led Minim's 2020 merger with Zoom Telephonics, a maker of cable modems and other customer premises equipment that first obtained a license to the Motorola brand in 2015 (Arris previously used the Motorola brand for its family of cable modem products).

The combined company later rebranded as Minim under then-CEO Gray Chynoweth and Jeremy Hitchcock, execs who worked together at Dyn, a domain name system (DNS) provider acquired by Oracle in 2016.