"Bringing balance and choice
back to the auto auction industry."
"Bringing balance and choice
back to the auto auction industry."
Prior to coming under current management as Acacia Automotive, the corporation originally was formed as Circuit One in 1984, and commenced doing business in 1985. A short time later it underwent a change of ownership and was renamed Gibbs Construction, Inc. It grew to become a full service, national commercial construction company, completing an initial public offering of its Common Stock in January, 1996. Following the incursion of significant losses on several small hotels and other projects in 1999 and the filing for bankruptcy protection of the Company’s largest client, Just for Feet, the Company thereafter lost its ability to secure bonding for its projects, resulting in its filing for federal bankruptcy protection in April of 2000. The Company did not obtain a court ordered final decree from the bankruptcy court until June 26, 2006. It was discharged with no assets and no liabilities, leaving a "clean" public shell that could serve as a perfect launch vehicle for our new venture.
In early 2006, Acacia's management, while seeking a public corporation to use as our growth vehicle, was introduced to the availability of the empty Gibbs Construction shell. On March 13, 2006, Acacia's management entered into a Letter of Intent to acquire control of the bankrupt shell, and immediately began taking actions to complete the acquisition. Following Gibbs' Final Decree and emergence from federal bankruptcy court in June of 2006, Acacia's management completed the final definitive purchase agreement on August 15, 2006, in which it purchased a sufficient number of Common Shares to assume effective control of the empty (and "clean") Gibbs Construction corporate shell. Acacia's management immediately initiated efforts to bring about the shell company's reorganization and recapitalization, including initial expenditures of at least $162,000 to pay expenses for the company followed by additional expenditures to bring the shell current with the SEC, and eventual resurrection of the shell for use by Acacia. This change in control of the Gibbs shell a legal name change from Gibbs Construction, Inc. to Acacia Automotive, Inc., and a change of trading symbol from GBSE to ACCA. After many months of work to create the years of audited financials and SEC reports required to bring the shell current, all those changes were ratified and implemented at the Company's first Special Meeting of Shareholders held in Dallas, Texas, on February 1, 2007.
Acacia's management found the acquisition of this clean, publicly-owned corporate "shell" to be the fastest and most efficient means of entering the public domain, considering the acquisition came with an established capital structure already traded on the stock market but with no assets or liabilities . Having brought the company current in all its SEC filings, meeting other requirements, and seeing all our proposals ratified at the first Special Meeting of Shareholders, we were finally in possession of a unique instrument to fulfill our plans for capitalization and jettison us into the future.
With shareholder approval of all the changes, the company was freed to move forward in implementing its fundraising and acquisition plans. On February 20, 2007, these amendments to our corporate charter became effective by NASDAQ and our name and trading symbol were officially changed. Following an unusually-lengthy period of approximately four weeks during which the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and our stock transfer agent diligently worked to implement all the changes approved by NASDAQ, our stock finally resumed trading and previous buy/sell transactions were allowed to clear at brokerages. Trading is expected to remain light for a period of time as a result of the very small number of registered shares currently in the "float", having the effect of making them largely unavailable. Of the total 12,062,524 shares of Common stock issued and outstanding as of November 30, 2009, only 382,524 of them are "free trading" shares, the balance being "restricted" shares with constraints on trading. These 362,524 shares comprise the "float", representing the only shares available in the world that can be freely bought and sold as of that date. As time passes, additional shares become tradable in the normal course and other factors occur, a more natural trading activity will be enabled. The company has a combination of approximately 400 registered and beneficial shareholders as of December 31, 2008, but that number and the number of Common shares issued and outstanding may increase in the future as a result of any new fundraising and/or acquisition activities or otherwise.
The company completed its first acquisition of an operating unit with the purchase of the assets of Augusta Auto Auction on July 10, 2007. That auction is located in North Augusta, South Carolina, just three minutes from downtown Augusta, Georgia. Acacia Automotive has operated that auction since July 11t of 2007h. Please see additional information relative to that purchase and the auction's performance on our News page. On August 31, 2009, the Company executed the documents to acquire its second operating unit, Chattanooga Auto Auction. After a brief period of managing the auction to provide for a smooth transition, Acacia will acquire the assets on December 26. The company anticipates launching additional capital raises to fund its acquisition strategies and for use as growth and operating capital as it moves forward.