Communication study, consists of five main sectors:

·                   Sustainable Economy . Renewable energy, energy conservation, recycled goods, environmental management services, sustainable manufacturing processes and related information and services.

·                   Healthy Living . Natural and organic foods, dietary supplements, personal care products and related information and services.

·                   Alternative Healthcare . Health and wellness solutions and alternative health practices.

·                   Personal Development . Solutions, information, products and experiences relating to mind, body and spiritual development.

·                   Ecological Lifestyles . Environmentally friendly cleaning and household products, organic cotton clothing and bedding, and eco-tourism.

Gaiam participates in all five sectors of the LOHAS market with an emphasis on Personal Development, Ecological Lifestyles and Alternative Healthcare.

The MTM Market

Gaiam considers the MTM market to consist of four distinct sectors:

·                   Childrens. Children’s entertainment and edutainment with a positive message.

·                   Family Entertainment. Entertainment that can be enjoyed by the entire family, containing no violence or profanity.

·                   Documentaries. Educational and informational programming (edutainment).

·                   Inspirational Entertainment. Entertainment that inspires people to expand their awareness and pursue positive changes in their lives.

Our Content

Gaiam’s business model revolves around content creation, which forms the basis for our proprietary products. We have an “in house” production team that produces programming, which has won 65 Telly awards and several medals at the International New York Film Festival. We are fully high definition and 5.1 surround sound capable and do the majority of our authoring and editing at our Colorado facility ensuring the quality standards that drives our awards. We also develop children’s programming, which have been the recipient of several Parent’s Choice and Kids First Awards recognizing new products that help children grow imaginatively, physically, and mentally. During 2006, we produced 45 new titles and added 150 titles to our DVD library through acquisitions and remakes of some of the assets of GoodTimes Entertainment (“GoodTimes”). Gaiam also develops and markets music and audio CDs and publishes printed content.

Our Products

Our visual media programs represent an integral part of our proprietary product offering. We currently stock approximately 10,000 stock keeping units (“SKUs”), of which approximately 7,000 are branded proprietary offerings, including media, accessories and soft goods. In 2006, our proprietary products constituted over 70% of our product sales.

Our Sales Channels

We conduct our business across two segments. Our business segment customers are primarily national retailers, corporate accounts and the media. We conduct our direct-to-consumer business through our catalogs, the Internet, direct response television and broadband and subscription clubs and communities.

·                   Media

Gaiam develops, produces and licenses information and programming targeted to consumers who value personal development, wellness, spirituality, inspirational entertainment and a sense of community. Gaiam has an award-winning library of titles that it sells to retailers, licenses to selected distributors operating outside of the United States, and licenses or sublicenses for broadcast and download. Some of our media partners include Google, Comcast, LodgeNet, Blackberry and Entertainment One. All of our licensing arrangements require Gaiam branding to be prominent on the programming and are subject to our royalty agreements with our performing artists. While our licensing of the rights to manufacture and distribute certain of our media lowers recognized revenue, contribution margins and branding are improved.

·                   DRTV

Gaiam uses direct response television (“DRTV”) marketing to promote LOHAS products and services, particularly those aimed at the fitness/wellness market. DRTV marketing is a highly-scalable distribution channel for segments of our LOHAS product suite, and also provides broad marketing support for our retail partners, as well as creates new direct customers to which we cross-market a wide range of LOHAS products and services via our catalog, Internet, and subscription segments. We capitalize on both long-form DRTV shows as well as leading home shopping channels such as QVC. In 2006, we used the DRTV channel to launch our mass market brand “The Firm”.

·                   Retailers

Since the inception of our retailer channel in 1998, we have increased its breadth and diversity. As of the end of 2006, Gaiam media titles may be found in over 68,000 stores in the United States from 55,000 at the end of 2005. Gaiam media and other products are currently sold across a variety of leading retailers, including bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders; media stores such as Best Buy and Blockbuster; lifestyle stores such as Discovery Channel Stores and EQ Life; beauty stores such as Ulta; home furnishing stores such as Bed, Bath and Beyond and ABC Carpet and Home; natural food stores such as Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats; sporting goods stores such as Dick’s and REI; mass merchants such as WalMart and Target, our largest customer, e-tailers such as Amazon.com and Drugstore.com; and wholesale clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club. Many of these retailers display our products in branded store-within-store lifestyle presentations that may include custom fixtures designed and produced by Gaiam. We implemented our first store-within-store concept late in 2000 and the concept has grown to over 6,000 stores by the end of 2006, up from 4,500 stores at the end of 2005.

Through distributor arrangements and acquisitions, Gaiam branded products may now be found in Canada, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and Australia. Our media products are sold to international accounts primarily under licensing agreements and the remaining products are sold through distributor relationships. During 2004, Gaiam entered into a joint venture in Australia to bring Gaiam products to consumers through catalogs, internet and Australian retailers commencing in 2005. Our majority owned UK subsidiary changed its name to Gaiam effective March 1, 2005.

·                   Services

Gaiam, through its Design and Consulting division and eco-travel company, Natural Habitat, provides products and services to businesses, corporate accounts, and schools. Clients of our lifestyle services included The White House, NASA, Fetzer Winery, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Government of Brazil, the Smithsonian Institution, and the World Wildlife Fund.

·                   Catalogs

Gaiam offers a variety of LOHAS products directly to the consumer through our catalogs and through some consumer lifestyle publications. We mailed approximately 20 million catalogs in 2006. Our customer demographics are highly regarded with an average income over $75,000 and over 70% college educated.

·                   Internet

We use the Internet to sell our products and to provide information on the LOHAS lifestyle.  We currently offer approximately 7,000 SKUs on our website, www.gaiam.com.  We promote our website through our visual media, catalogs, print publications, product packaging and Internet Links. A key component of our Internet approach is to provide customer support for Internet sales from our in-house call center.

·                   Subscription Services

Gaiam offers a variety of subscription paid services.  These services include online communities under various brands and subscription clubs.  During 2006, we acquired Spiritual Cinema Circle and grew our membership to over 100,000 members.  In the fourth quarter of 2006, we also tested a beta site for Gaiam community development.

Our Operations

·                   Product Development and Sourcing

Gaiam branded products are sold across our sales channels. Non-proprietary products are only available through our catalogs and over the Internet. We use our catalog and Internet channels to test products before we develop products under the Gaiam brand and distribute them through our other sales channels. Our products are designed to supply information, enhance customers’ lifestyles and experiences and provide healthy, natural solutions while being eco-friendly and promoting a sustainable economy. Because we use a multi-channel approach to our business we are able to leverage our product development costs across all channels of our business.

Our proprietary products are designed by our product development team, sourced both domestically and internationally by our merchandisers and produced by third party suppliers to our specifications. We also screen the environmental and social responsibility of our suppliers. In order to minimize risk we often identify an alternate supplier for our products in a separate location.

·                   Customer Service

Gaiam focuses on building and maintaining customer relationships that thrive on loyalty and trust. We maintain a “no-risk guarantee” policy, whereby a customer is provided a full refund for Gaiam products that are returned at any time, for any reason. We have established a most valued customer program, which extends added benefits to our most loyal catalog and Internet customers. Our in-house customer service department includes product specialists who have specific product knowledge and assist customers in selecting products and solutions that meet their needs. We employ telephone routing software that directs each call to the appropriate representative. Our policy is to ship orders no later than the next business day, which we accomplish by stocking inventory that supports over 92% of our orders. We believe that by offering exceptional customer service we encourage repeat purchases by our customers, enhance our brand identity and reputation and build stronger relationships with our customers.

·                   Established Infrastructure

We operate a 350,000 square foot distribution center near Cincinnati, Ohio, which provides fulfillment for most of our current domestic business needs and has the capacity to support the growth of our business. This central U.S. location allows us to achieve shipping cost efficiencies to most locations. The center is also located within 30 minutes of several major shipping company hubs. We use a supply chain management system that supports our entire operation, including fulfillment, inventory management, and customer service. Our fulfillment center is connected to our other facilities by a state-of-the art voice-over-Internet telecom network that allows us to maintain a high degree of connectivity within our organization.

Our Growth Strategies

·                   Expand our Media Offering

Proprietary and authentic content lies at the core of our business model. Our media offerings introduce customers to Gaiam and help establish Gaiam as an authority in the LOHAS market. Gaiam’s primary focus is on leveraging our content with branded lifestyle product offerings through various media, catalogs, the Internet, and national retailers. We believe that the content-centric strategy is a competitive advantage and the multi-channel approach allows us the broadest possible consumer reach. It also provides the optimal “context” for us to market lifestyle products that are appropriate companions to the media.

We will continue to develop authentic content that caters to the LOHAS lifestyle in DVD, book and audio formats and also accelerate our efforts in the broadcast and online categories. We intend to expand our brand to MTM, which incorporates children’s, family, inspirational and edutainment media. We believe we can establish the Gaiam brand as a leading brand in these new media categories.

We have expanded our visual media offerings internationally and plan to continue to expand this opportunity. We also intend to broaden the variety of formats we offer, from our traditional “physical media” (DVD, CD, etc), to making our content available online to our consumers in both one-shot “purchase” format and paid monthly/annual subscription services.

·                   Capitalize on our market share positioning

We continue to grow our media market share. Based on Nielsen’s Videoscan, Gaiam grew its U.S. DVD market share from 15% in 2004 to 26% in 2005 (pro forma with GoodTimes of over 40%) to 45% in 2006 in the fitness/wellness category. Based on the same Nielsen scanning, Gaiam ended sixth in the non-theatrical U.S. DVD category with 6% market share. We intend to continue to grow our market share in the non-theatrical category through the production and acquisition of titles in the MTM category, focusing on children’s and family entertainment.  We also plan to line extend into wellness with solution based programming and media based kits building store within store on wellness and continuing to grow our retail presence.

·                   Improve our Profit Margins

We believe we can improve our profit margins with several distinct strategies. We will continue to focus our sales strategy on media that carries over 70% gross margins. Gaiam is establishing itself as a brand in MTM and wellness/fitness media as well as in a genre we call edutainment. By continuing to grow our market share in media, we believe we can attract more media producers to work with the Gaiam brand instead of the traditional studio or distributor model.

We continue to improve margins as we are able to serve the large retailers directly instead of going through third party distributors allowed by the GoodTimes asset acquisition and the increased sales volume of Gaiam media. Since the GoodTimes transaction, we have been able to go directly to retailers like Wal-Mart and Kmart that were serviced by third party distributors prior to the acquisition.  During 2006 we implemented a new Vendor Manager Inventory System allowing us to improve store turns and reduce markdowns.

We launched a continuity and subscription club business in second quarter of 2005 which was augmented with certain acquired assets of GoodTimes Entertainment and the acquisition of a majority of Spiritual Cinema in 2006. These businesses carry over 85% gross margins and connect our media content directly to the consumer. We ended 2006 with over 100,000 paying members. We expect to invest in this channel of business. We believe that with the increase in broadband acceptance in the consumer marketplace coupled with our specialized media library and loyal direct customer base, we have an opportunity for strong growth at high margins.

We expect to grow our international business through licensing arrangements that carry low cost of goods. We have a valuable library of branded products that is not being currently monetized with the exception of the UK and Australia. In 2006, we hired personnel familiar with international licensing who will lead this initiative.

·                   Strengthen our Lifestyle Brand

Our goal is to maintain the Gaiam brand as an authority in the LOHAS market (including MTM) and to establish Gaiam as a unifying symbol of the emerging LOHAS lifestyle. We plan to strengthen the Gaiam brand by growing our media, making the Gaiam brand more prominent across our catalog efforts, focusing on category management initiatives, increasing our store-within-store presence across national retailers, increasing our marketing and PR efforts, and aggressively developing and marketing proprietary products while maintaining our high level of customer service. We initiated a branding study in late 2006 that will drive this initiative in 2007.

·                   Launch a Mass Market Brand in Fitness

We launched mass market media and products in fitness under “The Firm” brand in late 2006. We believe that the aging baby boomers at all income levels will be looking for fitness/wellness products. We do not market the Gaiam brand except in media in certain mass market channels and believe there is growth opportunity for us in those channels under a different brand with the same attention to quality that we have at Gaiam. We supported The Firm brand through DRTV dollars during 2006 and ended the year with over 1,000 doors carrying The Firm brand mainly through a SWIS display.

·                   Expand our Proprietary Products

Our proprietary products, which we introduced in 1997, represented over 70% of our revenues in fiscal year 2006. These products carry a higher margin, provide for branding opportunity and distinguish us from our competitors. We currently offer proprietary products that range from media products to sleep, stress relief, yoga and Pilates accessories to organic cotton bedding and bath products. We have also expanded our exclusive media library to over 2000 titles through our acquisition of the assets of GoodTimes Entertainment. We continue to develop and market proprietary products across the LOHAS sectors. We will continue to look for additional library acquisitions as we expand our content across the MTM market. We are strengthening our supply chain globally by sourcing a greater number of products offshore and leveraging our expanding media sales to acquire lower costs from our replicators. We leverage our product development costs over all sales channels.

·                   Capitalize on our Multi-channel Approach

Our multi-channel strategy affords us the broadest possible customer reach, as well as the ability to allow our customers to buy from us “what they want, when they want, where they want to.” This approach makes purchasing our lifestyle products convenient regardless of the channel that a customer prefers. It also allows us to migrate segments of our customer base across channels to develop deeper, longer-lasting relationships with them, and to convert them from purchasers of individual media products into subscribers to our “continuity programs,” whether those are DVD-based, or online access to communities and content on a continuity basis. Additionally, this diversified, strategic approach should provide for continued operating and business stability as we have the ability to cross-market lifestyle products and services regardless of the customer location or the channel to which we are marketing.

In our direct-to-consumer business we are open 24 hours a day, offering over 7,000 products on our Internet site. As we increase the depth of media and community functionality available to our consumers, our Internet presence will transform from being merely a place to “order” product to a place to “consume” it, in real-time.

In our business segment, we continue to expand our presence in national retailers and currently have placements in approximately 68,000 retail points in the United States up from 50,000 at the end of 2005 and 25,000 at the end of 2004. We also continue to expand our store-within-store concept in a variety of stores, including Whole Foods Market, Barnes & Noble Bookstores, Borders, Target, Ulta, Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI, ABC Carpet and Home and other national retailers. We currently have over 6,000 store within store concepts under the Gaiam and The Firm brands.

·                   Complement our Existing Business with Selective Strategic Acquisitions

Our growth strategy is not dependent on acquisitions. However, we will consider those strategic acquisitions in the LOHAS market that complement our existing business, increase our media and related product offerings, expand our geographical reach, extend our channel distribution, and add to our direct customer base. We especially focus on companies with media content, a strong brand identity and customer and product information databases that augment our existing databases. Gaiam often allows some of the acquired company’s management team to retain responsibility for front-end business functions such as creative presentation and marketing, while consolidating operational functions under Gaiam’s existing infrastructure when economies of scale can be realized.

·                   Establish a lifestyle community

In 2007, Gaiam plans to expand its community efforts, with specific focus on sustainability, personal development, healthy living, spirituality, alternative healthcare, and responsible media. Gaiam already works with the leading experts in these fields to produce our current suite of media offerings. In 2007, we will launch the online “space” for our customers to come together with each other and with Gaiam’s cadre of experts in these core LOHAS areas, to share ideas, discuss new trends and solutions, and allow our customers have access to world-class resources to deepen their understanding of issues that are central to how they choose to live their lives.

Our Business Segments

We separate our business into two business segments: the business segment which includes sales to businesses, retailers, corporate accounts and media outlets; and the direct-to-consumer segment, which includes DRTV, catalogs, E-commerce, and subscription community services.

The business segment represented 43% of 2006 revenues, while the direct to consumer segment represented 57% of revenues. See Note 11 to our consolidated financial statements for further information on our segments.

Our Intellectual Property

Our tradename Gaiam and various product and Internet domain names are subject to trademark or pending trademark applications of Gaiam or a Gaiam company. We believe these trademarks are significant assets to our business.

Our Competitive Position

We believe that fragmented supplier and distribution networks characterize the LOHAS market, and we are not aware of a dominant leader. Gaiam’s goal is to establish itself as the market leader.

Our business is evolving and competitive. Larger and better-established entities may acquire, invest in or form joint ventures with our competitors. Many of these entities have longer operating histories and have greater financial and marketing resources than we have. Increased competition from these or other competitors could reduce our revenue and profits. In addition, the smaller businesses we compete against may be able to more effectively personalize their relationships with customers.

Because Gaiam uses multi-channel distribution for our products, we compete with various producers of similar products and services. Our competitors include Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Fox, Anchor Bay, Inspired Entertainment, Goldhill Media, Nike, Reebok, thousands of small, local and regional businesses, and product lines or items offered by large retailers, manufacturers, publishers and media producers.

We believe the principal competitive factors in the LOHAS market are authenticity of information, unique content and distinctiveness of products and services, quality of product, brand recognition and price, and distribution capabilities. We believe we compete favorably on all these relevant factors.

We expect industry consolidation to increase competition. As our competitors grow, they may adopt aggressive pricing or inventory policies, which could result in reduced operating margins and loss of market share.

Our success also depends upon the willingness of consumers to purchase media, goods and services that promote the values we espouse. While we believe our business plan and assumptions are reasonable, the demographic trends on which they are based may change and the current consumption levels may not be sustained. The decrease of consumer interest in purchasing goods and services that promote the values we espouse would materially and adversely affect our customer base and revenues and, accordingly, our financial prospects.

Our Employees

As of March 1, 2007, Gaiam and the Gaiam companies employed approximately 363 individuals. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Regulatory Matters

A number of existing and proposed laws restrict disclosure of consumers’ personal information, which may make it more difficult for Gaiam to generate additional names for its direct marketing, and restrict our ability to send unsolicited electronic mail or printed materials. Although Gaiam believes it is generally in compliance with current laws and regulations and that these laws and regulations have not had a significant impact on our business to date, it is possible that existing or future regulatory requirements will impose a significant burden on us.

The Gaiam companies generally collect sales taxes only on sales to residents of states in which Gaiam has locations.  Currently, Gaiam collects sales taxes on sales to residents of California, Colorado, New York and Ohio. A number of legislative proposals have been made at the federal, state and local level, and by foreign governments, that would impose additional taxes on the sale of goods and services over the Internet and certain states have taken measures to tax Internet-related activities. If legislation is enacted that requires Gaiam to collect sales taxes on sales to residents of other states or jurisdictions, sales in our direct-to-consumer businesses may be adversely affected.

Our business is also subject to a number of other governmental regulations, including the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule and related regulations of the Federal Trade Commission. These regulations prohibit unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with mail and telephone order sales and require sellers of mail and telephone order merchandise to conform to certain rules of conduct with respect to shipping dates and shipping delays. We are also subject to regulations of the U.S. Postal Service and various state and local consumer protection agencies relating to matters such as advertising, order solicitation, shipment deadlines and customer refunds and returns. In addition, merchandise imported by Gaiam is subject to import and customs duties and, in some cases, import quotas.

Seasonality

See the “Quarterly and Seasonal Fluctuations” section of Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, for information pertaining to the seasonal aspects of our business.

Available Information

Our corporate website at www.gaiam.com/corporate provides information about Gaiam, its history, goals and philosophy, as well as certain financial reports and corporate press releases. Our www.gaiam.com website features a library of information and articles on personal development, healthy lifestyles and environmental issues, along with an extensive offering of media, products and services. We believe our website provides us with an opportunity to deepen our relationships with our customers and investors, educate them on a variety of issues, and improve our service. As part of this commitment, we have added a link on our corporate website to our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our reports on Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and all amendments to such reports. Those reports are available through our website, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after these reports are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We have included our website addresses only as inactive textual reference, and the information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into the Form 10-K.

Item 1A.          Risk Factors

We wish to caution you that there are risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different from those indicated by forward looking statements that we make from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, news releases, reports, proxy statements, registration statements and other written communications as well as oral forward looking statements made from time to time by our representatives. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks described below. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or those we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations, and historical results are not necessarily an indication of the future results. The cautionary statements below discuss important factors that could cause our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows to be materially adversely affected.

Changes in general economic conditions could have a material impact on our business

Our results of operations could be impacted by changes in overall economic conditions that impact consumer spending. Future economic conditions affecting disposable income such as employment levels, consumer confidence, business conditions, stock market volatility, weather conditions, acts of terrorism, threats of war, and interest and tax rates could reduce consumer spending or cause consumers to shift their spending away from our products. If the economic conditions and performance of the retail and media environment worsen, we may experience material adverse impacts on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Increased competition could impact our financial results

We believe that the LOHAS market has thousands of small, local and regional businesses. Some smaller businesses may be able to more effectively personalize their relationships with customers, thereby gaining a competitive advantage. Although we believe that we do not compete directly with any single company that offers our entire range of merchandise, within each merchandise category we have competitors and we may face competition from new entrants. Some of our competitors or our potential competitors may have greater financial and marketing resources and greater brand recognition. In addition, larger, well-established and well-financed entities may acquire, invest in or form joint ventures with our competitors. Increased competition from these or other competitors could negatively impact our business.

Changing consumer preferences may have an adverse effect on our business

Our business is targeted at consumers who assign high value to personal development, healthy lifestyles, responsible media, renewable energy and the environment. A decrease of consumer interest in purchasing goods and services that promote the values we espouse would materially and adversely affect our customer base and sales revenues and, accordingly, our financial prospects. Further, consumer preferences and product trends are difficult to predict. Our future success depends in part on our ability to anticipate and respond to changes in consumer preferences and we may not respond in a timely or commercially appropriate manner to such changes. Failure to anticipate and respond to changing consumer preferences and product trends could lead to, among other things, lower sales of our products, increased merchandise returns and lower margins, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our strategy of offering branded products could lead to inventory risk and higher costs

An important part of our strategy is to feature branded products. These products are sold under our brand names and are manufactured to our specifications. We expect our reliance on branded merchandise to increase. The use of branded merchandise requires us to incur costs and risks relating to the design and purchase of products, including submitting orders earlier and making longer initial purchase commitments.

In addition, the use of branded merchandise limits our ability to return unsold products to vendors, which can result in higher markdowns in order to sell excess inventory. Our commitment to customer service typically results in us keeping a high level of merchandise in stock so we can fill orders quickly. Consequently, we run the risk of having excess inventory, which may also contribute to higher markdowns. Our failure to successfully execute a branded merchandise strategy or to achieve anticipated profit margins on these goods, or a higher than anticipated level of overstocks, may materially adversely affect our revenues.

We offer our customers liberal merchandise return policies. Our consolidated financial statements include a reserve for anticipated merchandise returns, which is based on historical return rates. It is possible that actual returns may increase as a result of factors such as the introduction of new merchandise, changes in merchandise mix or other factors. Any increase in our merchandise returns will correspondingly reduce our revenues.

Acquisitions may harm our financial results

Acquisitions have been part of our growth and may continue to be part of our growth in the future. Our acquisitions may be of entire companies, certain assets of companies, controlling interests in companies or of minority interests in companies where we intend to invest as part of a strategic alliance. If we are not successful in integrating companies that we acquire or are not able to generate adequate sales from the acquired entities, our business could be materially and adversely affected.

The loss of the services of our key personnel could disrupt our business

We depend on the continued services and performance of our senior management and other key personnel, particularly Jirka Rysavy and Lynn Powers. Our strategy of allowing the management teams of some acquired companies to continue to exercise significant management responsibility for those companies makes it important that we retain key employees, particularly the sales and creative teams, of the companies we might acquire.

Our founder and chief executive officer Jirka Rysavy controls Gaiam

Mr. Rysavy holds 100% of Gaiam’s 5,400,000 outstanding shares of class B common stock and also owns 1,118,682 shares of class A common stock. The shares of class B common stock are convertible into shares of class A common stock at any time. Each share of class B common stock has ten votes per share, and each share of class A common stock has one vote per share. Consequently, Mr. Rysavy is able to vote a majority of our stock, and will be able to exert substantial influence over Gaiam and to control matters requiring approval by the shareholders of Gaiam, including the election of directors, increasing our authorized capital stock, or a merger or sale of our assets. As a result of Mr. Rysavy’s control, no change of control of Gaiam can occur without Mr. Rysavy’s consent.

Our success depends on the value of the Gaiam brand

Because of our reliance on sales of proprietary products, our success depends on the Gaiam brand. Building and maintaining recognition of the Gaiam brand are important to attracting and expanding our customer base. If the value of the Gaiam brand were adversely affected, we cannot be certain that we will be able to attract new customers, retain existing customers or encourage repeat purchases, and if the value of our brand were to diminish, our revenues, results of operations and prospects would be adversely affected.

Disputes concerning media content and intellectual property may adversely affect us

Most of our media content is subject to arrangements with third parties pursuant to which we have licensed certain rights to use and distribute media content owned by third parties or have licensed to third parties certain rights to use and distribute media content that we own. In addition, we have a number of agreements with third parties concerning the use of our media content and intellectual property, including agreements regarding royalties, distribution, duplication, etc. Allegations that we do not have rights to use media content and other disputes arising from such arrangements can be costly and may have a material adverse impact on our results.

We are dependent on third party suppliers for the success of our proprietary products

We are dependent on the success of our proprietary products, and we rely on a select group of manufacturers to provide us with sufficient quantities to meet our customers’ demands in a timely manner, produce these products in a humane and safe environment for both their workers and the planet, maintain quality standards consistent with the Gaiam brand, and meet certain pricing guarantees. Our sourcing of these products overseas continues to increase, and these arrangements carry risks associated with relying on products manufactured outside of the U.S., including political unrest and trade restrictions, currency fluctuations, transportation difficulties, work stoppages, and other uncertainties. In addition, a number of our suppliers are small companies, and some of these vendors may not have sufficient capital, resources or personnel to increase their sales to us or to meet our needs for increased commitments from them. The failure of our suppliers to provide sufficient quantities of our proprietary products could decrease our revenues, increase our costs, and damage our customer service reputation.

We rely on communications and shipping networks to deliver our products

Given our emphasis on customer service, the efficient and uninterrupted operation of order-processing and fulfillment functions is critical to our business. To maintain a high level of customer service, we rely heavily on a number of different outside service providers, such as printers, telecommunications companies and delivery companies. Any interruption in services from our principal outside service providers, including delays or disruptions resulting from labor disputes, power outages, human error, adverse weather conditions or natural disasters, could materially adversely affect our business. In addition, products that we source overseas must be shipped to our distribution center by freight carriers, and a work stoppage or political unrest could adversely affect our ability to fulfill our customer orders.

Information systems upgrades or integrations may disrupt our operations or financial reporting

We continually evaluate and upgrade our management information systems, which are critical to our business. These systems assist in processing orders, managing inventory, purchasing and shipping merchandise on a timely basis, responding to customer service inquiries, and gathering and analyzing operating data by business segment, customer, and SKU (a specific identifier for each different product). We are required to continually update these systems. Furthermore, if we acquire other companies, we will need to integrate the acquired companies’ systems with ours, a process that could be time-consuming and costly. If our systems cannot accommodate our growth or if they fail, we could incur substantial expenses.

Additionally, our success in E-commerce will depend upon our ability to provide a compelling and satisfying shopping experience. To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our online technology.

A material security breach could cause us to lose sales, damage our reputation or result in liability to us

Our computer servers may be vulnerable to computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins and similar disruptions. We may need to expend significant additional capital and other resources to protect against a security breach or to alleviate problems caused by any breaches. Our relationships with our customers may be adversely affected if the security measures that we use to protect personal information such as credit card numbers are ineffective. We currently rely on security and authentication technology that we license from third parties. We may not prevent all security breaches.

Our systems may fail or limit user traffic, which would cause us to lose sales

We support most of our business through our call center in Broomfield, Colorado. Even though we have back up arrangements, we are dependent on our ability to maintain our computer and telecommunications equipment in this center in effective working order and to protect against damage from fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure or similar events. In addition, growth of our customer base may strain or exceed the capacity of our computer and telecommunications systems and lead to degradations in performance or systems failure. We have experienced capacity constraints and failure of information systems in the past that have resulted in decreased levels of service delivery or interruptions in service to customers for limited periods of time. Although we continually review and consider upgrades to our technical infrastructure and provide for system redundancies and backup power to limit the likelihood of systems overload or failure, substantial damage to our systems or a systems failure that causes interruptions for a number of days could adversely affect our business. Additionally, if we are unsuccessful in updating and expanding our infrastructure, including our call center, our ability to grow may be constrained.

Government regulation of the Internet and E-commerce is evolving and unfavorable changes could harm our business

We are subject to general business regulations and laws, as well as regulations and laws specifically governing the Internet and E-commerce. Such existing and future laws and regulations may impede the growth of the Internet or other online services.  These regulations and laws may cover taxation, user privacy, pricing, content, copyrights, distribution, consumer protection, the provision of online payment services and quality of products and services.  There is lack of clarity on how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes and personal privacy apply to the Internet and E-commerce.  Unfavorable resolution of these issues may harm our business.

We may face legal liability for the content contained on our website

We could face legal liability for defamation, negligence, copyright, patent or trademark infringement, personal injury or other claims based on the nature and content of materials that we publish or distribute on our website. If we are held liable for damages for the content on our website, our business may suffer. Further, one of our goals is for www.gaiam.com to be a trustworthy and dependable provider of information and services. Allegations of impropriety, even if unfounded, could therefore have a material adverse effect on our reputation and our business.

Relying on our centralized fulfillment center could expose us to losing revenue

Prompt and efficient fulfillment of our customers’ orders is critical to our business. Our facility in Cincinnati, Ohio handles our fulfillment functions and some customer-service related operations, such as returns processing. A majority of our orders are filled and shipped from the Cincinnati facility. The balance is shipped directly from suppliers. Because we rely on a centralized fulfillment center, our fulfillment functions could be severely impaired in the event of fire, extended adverse weather conditions, transportation difficulties or natural disasters. Because we recognize revenue only when we ship orders, interruption of our shipping would diminish our revenues.

We may face quarterly and seasonal fluctuations that could harm our business

Our revenue and results of operations have fluctuated and will continue to fluctuate on a quarterly basis as a result of a number of factors, including the timing of catalog offerings, timing of orders from retailers, recognition of costs or net sales contributed by new merchandise, fluctuations in response rates, fluctuations in paper, production and postage costs and expenses, merchandise returns, adverse weather conditions that affect distribution or shipping, shifts in the timing of holidays and changes in our merchandise mix. In particular, our net sales and profits have historically been higher during the fourth quarter holiday season. We believe that this seasonality will continue in the future.

Postage and shipping costs may increase and therefore increase our expenses

We ship our products, catalogs, and lifestyle publications to consumers and the cost of shipping is a material expenditure. Postage and shipping prices increase periodically and can be expected to increase in the future. Any inability to secure suitable or commercially favorable prices or other terms for the delivery of our merchandise and catalogs could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is subject to reporting requirements that continue to evolve and change, which could continue to require significant compliance effort and resources.

Because our common stock is publicly traded, we are subject to certain rules and regulations of federal, state and financial market exchange entities charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded. These entities, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the SEC and the NASDAQ, periodically issue new requirements and regulations and legislative bodies also review and revise applicable laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. As interpretation and implementation of these laws and rules and promulgation of new regulations continues, we will continue to be required to commit significant financial and managerial resources and incur additional expenses.

Item 1B.          Unresolved Staff Comments

Not Applicable.