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July 17,
2010
VIA
EDGAR
Mr. Ryan
Rohn, Staff Accountant
Division
of Corporation Finance
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F
Street, N. E.
Mail Stop
4561
Washington,
D. C. 20549-4561
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Re:
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Smart
Online, Inc.
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Item
4.02 Form 8-K
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Filed
April 15, 2010
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File
No. 001-32634
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Dear Mr.
Rohn:
This
letter responds to your comment letter of July 9, 2010 regarding the above
referenced filing made by Smart Online, Inc. (the “Company”) with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”). This letter includes each comment
from your letter in bold with the Company’s responses set forth immediately
below.
1. We
are continuing to consider your response to our prior comment
2. Please clarify to us if the services purchased from you by the
IBOs under the contract with the membership organization were required to be
purchased from you or did the IBOs have the ability to purchase similar services
from another provider.
RESPONSE
The
services purchased by the IBOs from our company were not a requirement of the
membership organization. The IBOs were free to choose other providers
of the services and the use of our services was not necessary for the IBOs to
perform their tasks for continued membership in the organization. The
individual IBOs were independent customers of our Company, under no obligation
or requirement to purchase our services. The membership organization
provided information and recommendations about our services to the
IBOs. Our Company paid the membership organization based upon the
revenue generated through the organization’s IBO usage. Since a clear
sales representation role is present in the fact pattern, our Company has
treated the payment as part of the sales and marketing costs in the income
statement. The treatment is consistent with the traditional
“matching” accounting concept.


2. We
have reviewed your responses to our prior comments 3 and 4. We note
that you have provided restated amounts for your quarterly periods ended for
2009 and 2008 within your Form 10-K in lieu of amending the respective Form
10-Q’s. However, this Form 10-K did not include disclosures that
would have been provided had those Form 10-Q’s been amended (e.g., such as
MD&A). As such, please amend your Form 10-Q’s for the quarterly periods
ended March 31, 2009, June 30, 2009, and September 30, 2009 to restate your
financial statements and the related disclosures. Include an
explanatory paragraph in the beginning of the filing that explains the nature of
the restatement, as well as each financial statement column affected should be
labeled “as restated.” Ensure that your disclosures fully comply with
ASC 250-10-45-23 and ASC 250-10-50-7. Also describe the effect of the
restatement on the officers’ conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the
Company’s disclosure controls and procedures. See Item 307 of
Regulation S-K. If the officers conclude that the disclosure controls
and procedures were effective, despite the restatement, describe the basis for
the officers’ conclusions. In this regard, we note in your responses
that you believe that you did not have any material weakness because your net
losses did not change as a result of the restatements. Provide your
analysis in consideration of the significant changes in your revenue and gross
profit amounts.
Alternatively,
please amend your 2009 Form 10-K to include disclosures as noted
above. That is, amend you 10-K to include updated MD &A
disclosures for each quarterly period that has been restated. Your
amended 10-K should also include an explanatory paragraph in the beginning of
your filing that explains the nature of the restatement, as well as
each financial statement column affected should be labeled “as
restated.” Ensure that your disclosures fully comply with ASC
250-10-45-23 and ASC 250-10-50-7. Expand your disclosure
controls and procedures disclosures to discuss the impact of the restatement on
your prior conclusion of effectiveness. Consider the same
factors as noted above.
RESPONSE
We will comply with your request to
restate the information provided for the three quarters specified above and
include the disclosures as required. In an effort to provide for the
efficient use of resources, we request that you provide us with your considered
opinion on item 1 in this letter, as it would be appropriate to include all
information in one set of filings with the SEC. We will begin the
process of preparing the restated information and complete the filings promptly
after our receipt of your response. We will address the issues of
disclosure controls and procedures in the restated documents.
The
Company acknowledges that:
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The
Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in
the filing.
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Staff
comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do not
foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the
filing
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The
Company may not assert staff comments as a defense in any proceeding
initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities
laws of the United States.
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Please do
not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or
comments.
Respectfully
submitted,
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/s/Thaddeus
J. Shalek
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Thaddeus
J. Shalek
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Interim
Chief Financial Officer
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Smart
Online, Inc.
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cc:
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Mr.
Dror Zoreff
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Mr.
Amir Elbaz
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Ms.
Michelle Thompson
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Adam
Stein, Esq.
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