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Related Party Transactions
12 Months Ended
Aug. 31, 2020
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
Related Party Transactions



17.RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS



Knowledge Capital Investment Group



In December 2019, Knowledge Capital Investment Group (Knowledge Capital), an investor which held 2.8 million shares of our common stock stemming from its initial investment in Franklin Covey over 20 years ago, wound up its operations and distributed its assets to investors.  On December 9, 2019, prior to the distribution of its assets to investors, we purchased 284,608 shares of our common stock from Knowledge Capital at $35.1361 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $10.1 million, including legal costs.  Our CEO and a member of our Board of Directors each owned a partnership interest in Knowledge Capital.  At August 31, 2020, Knowledge Capital does not own any shares of our common stock.



FC Organizational Products



We previously owned a 19.5 percent interest in FC Organizational Products (FCOP), an entity that purchased substantially all of our consumer solutions business unit assets in fiscal 2008 for the purpose of selling planners and related organizational products under a comprehensive licensing agreement.  As a result of FCOP’s structure as a limited liability company with separate owner capital accounts, we determined that our investment in FCOP was more than minor and we were required to account for our investment in FCOP using the equity method of accounting.  We have not recorded our share of FCOP’s losses in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss because we have impaired and written off investment balances, as defined within the applicable accounting guidance, in excess of our share of FCOP’s losses.



Due to significant operating losses incurred after the establishment of FCOP, we reconsidered whether FCOP was a variable interest entity as defined under ASC 810, and determined that FCOP was a variable interest entity.  We further determined that we were not the primary beneficiary of FCOP because we did not have the ability to direct the activities that most significantly impact FCOP’s economic performance, which primarily consisted of the day-to-day sale of planning products and related accessories, and we did not have an obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits from FCOP that could have been significant.



On November 4, 2019, FCOP sold substantially all of its assets to Franklin Planner Corporation (FPC), a new unrelated entity, and FCOP was dissolved.  FPC has continued FCOP’s business of selling planners and other related consumer products based on the license agreement which granted FCOP the exclusive rights described below.



In connection with this transaction, we exchanged approximately $3.2 million of receivables from FCOP to amend the term and royalty provisions of the existing license agreement.  The $3.2 million of consideration included a $2.6 million note receivable, which represented FCOP’s third-party bank debt that we purchased directly from the bank on the transaction date.  The amended license agreement grants the exclusive right to use certain of our trademarks and other intellectual property in connection with certain consumer products and provides us with minimum royalties of approximately $1.3 million per year.  We are also entitled to receive additional variable royalties if certain FPC financial metrics exceed specified levels.  FPC assumed the amended license agreement from FCOP upon the purchase of FCOP assets.  We recorded the $3.2 million consideration for the amendment to the license agreement as a capitalized cost of the license agreement (Note 2) and will reduce our royalty revenue by amortizing this amount over the remainder of the initial term of the license agreement, which ends in approximately 30 years.  During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2020, we recognized $2.0 million of net royalty revenues from the amended license agreement with FPC.



We do not have an ownership interest in FPC, do not have any obligation to provide additional subordinated support to FPC, do not have control over the day-to-day operations of FPC, and accordingly do not account for FPC as a variable interest entity.  We receive payments for royalties and rented space from FPC.  At August 31, 2020, we had $1.7 million receivable from FPC and at August 31, 2019, we had $1.0 million receivable from FCOP, each of which are recorded in current assets.  Since most of FPC’s sales and cash flows are seasonal and occur between October and January, we expect to receive the majority of the required cash payments for royalties and outstanding receivables during our second and third quarters of each fiscal year.  During fiscal 2020, we received $1.4 million of cash from FPC as payment for royalties and reimbursable operating costs.



CoveyLink Acquisition and Contractual Payments



We previously acquired the assets of CoveyLink Worldwide, LLC (CoveyLink).  CoveyLink conducts training and provides consulting based upon the book The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey, who is the brother of one of our executive officers.



Prior to the acquisition date, CoveyLink had granted us a non-exclusive license for content related to The Speed of Trust book and related training courses for which we paid CoveyLink specified royalties.  As part of the CoveyLink acquisition, we signed an amended and restated license for intellectual property that granted us an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, transferable, royalty-bearing license to use, reproduce, display, distribute, sell, prepare derivative works of, and perform the licensed material in any format or medium and through any market or distribution channel.  We are required to pay Stephen M.R. Covey royalties for the use of certain intellectual property developed by him.  The amount expensed for these royalties totaled $1.6 million, $1.7 million, and $1.8 million during the fiscal years ended August 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018.  As part of the acquisition of CoveyLink, we signed an amended license agreement as well as a speaker services agreement.  Based on the provisions of the speakers’ services agreement, we pay Stephen M.R. Covey a portion of the speaking revenues received for his presentations.  We expensed $0.8 million, $1.2 million, and $0.9 million for payment on these presentations during the fiscal years ended August 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018.  We had $0.2 million and $0.6 million accrued for these royalties and speaking fees at August 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, which were included as components of accrued liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets.



Acquired License Rights for Intellectual Property



During fiscal 2017, we acquired the license rights for certain intellectual property owned by Higher Moment, LLC for $0.8 million.  The intellectual property is in part based on works authored and developed by Dr. Clayton Christensen, a well-known author and lecturer, who was a member of our Board of Directors prior to his passing in January 2020.  However, Dr. Christensen did not have an ownership interest in Higher Moment, LLC.  The initial license period is five years and the agreement may be renewed for successive five-year periods for $0.8 million at each renewal date.  The agreement may be terminated by either party at any time, but if we choose to terminate the agreement prior to the third renewal date, we are required to pay $0.3 million to Higher Moment, LLC.



Other Related Party Transactions



We pay an executive officer of the Company a percentage of the royalty proceeds received from the sales of certain books authored by him in addition to his annual salary.  During the fiscal years ended August 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018, we expensed $0.1 million, $0.1 million, and $0.2 million for these royalties.  We had an insignificant amount accrued to this executive officer at August 31, 2020 and $0.1 million accrued at August 31, 2019 as payable under the terms of these arrangements.  These amounts are included as components of accrued liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets.



We pay a company owned by the brother of a member of our executive management team for the production of video segments used in our offerings.  During the fiscal years ended August 31, 2020 and 2019, we paid $1.0 million and $0.8 million to this company for services provided.