Item 4.02 Non-Reliance on Previously Issued Financial Statements or a Related
Audit Report or Completed Interim Review.
On November 13, 2021, the audit committee (the "Audit Committee") of Athena
Technology Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation and special purpose
acquisition company (the "Company"), based on the recommendation of, and after
consultation with, the Company's management, and as discussed with Marcum LLP
("Marcum"), the Company's independent registered public accounting firm,
concluded that the Company's previously issued financial statements consisting
of (a) the audited balance sheet of Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. as of
March 19, 2021 and the related notes (the "IPO Financial Statement") with
respect to the Company's initial public offering that was filed as an exhibit to
the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March 25, 2021, as previously revised in the
Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31,
2021, filed with the SEC on May 24, 2021 (the "Q1 Form 10-Q"), and the audit
report dated as of March 25, 2021 included in the IPO Financial Statement, (b)
the Company's unaudited condensed financial statements as of March 31, 2021 and
the related notes included in the Q1 Form 10-Q (the "March 31 Financial
Statements"), (c) the Company's unaudited condensed financial statements as of
June 30, 2021 and the related notes (the "June 30 Financial Statements")
included in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period
ended June 30, 2021, filed with the SEC on August 13, 2021 (the "Q2 Form 10-Q"),
and (d) and any communications describing relevant portions of the Company's
Previously Issued Financial Statements (as herein defined), should no longer be
relied upon due to the classification of a portion of the Company's shares of
Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, included in its units sold
issued during the Company's initial public offering (such shares, the "Public
Shares"). The Company's IPO Financial Statement, the March 31 Financial
Statements, and June 30 Financial Statements are collectively referred to herein
as the "Previously Issued Financial Statements."
In the Previously Issued Financial Statements, the Company classified a portion
of the Public Shares as permanent equity to maintain stockholders' equity
greater than $5,000,000 on the basis that the Company will consummate its
initial business combination only if the Company has net tangible assets of at
least $5,000,001. The Company can only complete a merger and continue to exist
as a public company if there are sufficient Public Shares that do not redeem at
the merger and determined it was appropriate to classify the portion of its
Public Shares required to keep its stockholders' equity above the $5,000,000
threshold as "shares not subject to redemption."
Recently, the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC issued
comment letters to several special purpose acquisition companies addressing
certain accounting and reporting considerations related to redeemable equity
instruments of a kind similar to those issued by the Company under ASC
480-10-99. In light of these recent comment letters, the Company's management,
re-evaluated the Company's application of ASC 480-10-99 to its accounting
classification of the Public Shares. Upon re-evaluation, the Company's
management determined that the Public Shares can be redeemed or become
redeemable subject to the occurrence of future events considered outside the
Company's control under ASC 480-10-S99. Therefore, the Company's management
concluded that all of the Public Shares should be classified as temporary equity
in their entirety. As a result, management has restated its previously issued
financial statements and has a reclassification adjustment related to temporary
equity and permanent equity in Note 2 its unaudited condensed financial
statements as of September 30, 2021 filed on November 15, 2021. This resulted in
an adjustment to the initial carrying value of the Public Shares with the offset
recorded to additional paid-in capital (to the extent available), accumulated
deficit and common stock.
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In connection with the change in presentation for the Public Shares, the Company
also restated its earnings per share calculation to allocate net income (loss)
evenly to redeemable and nonredeemable common stock. This presentation
contemplates a Business Combination as the most likely outcome, in which case,
both classes of common stock pro rata in the income (loss) of the Company.
In accordance with SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 99, "Materiality," and SEC
Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108, "Considering the Effects of Prior Year
Misstatements when Quantifying Misstatements in Current Year Financial
Statements;" the Company evaluated the changes and has determined that the
related impacts were material to the Previously Issued Financial Statements.
Therefore, the Company, in consultation with its Audit Committee, concluded that
its Previously Issued Financial Statements impacted should be restated to report
all public shares as temporary equity. The Company has restated those periods
from its Previously Issued Financial Statements in its Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2021, filed with the SEC on November 15,
2021 (the "Q3 Form 10-Q") in Note 2 to its financial statements.
The Company does not expect the above-described accounting for the Public Shares
to have any effect on the Company's previously reported investments held in
trust or cash.
The Company's management has concluded that in light of the classification error
described above, a material weakness exists in the Company's internal control
over financial reporting and that the Company's disclosure controls and
procedures were not effective for all periods since the Company's initial public
offering consummated on March 19, 2021. The Company's remediation plan with
respect to such material weakness is described in more detail in the Q3 Form
10-Q.
The Audit Committee and management of the Company have discussed the matters
disclosed pursuant to this Item 4.02 with Marcum.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Current Report on Form 8-K includes "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Certain of these forward-looking statements can
be identified by the use of words such as "believes," "expects," "intends,"
"plans," "estimates," "assumes," "may," "should," "will," "seeks," or other
similar expressions. Such statements may include, but are not limited to,
statements regarding the impact of the Company's restatement of certain
historical financial statements, the Company's cash position and cash held in
the Trust Account and any proposed remediation measures with respect to
identified material weaknesses. These statements are based on current
expectations on the date of this Current Report on Form 8-K and involve a number
of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
significantly. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise
any such forward-looking statements, whether as the result of new developments
or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking
statements.
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