NATURE OF OPERATIONS

12 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2023

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

Steel Connect, Inc., (the "Company" or "Steel Connect"), is a holding company which operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary ModusLink Corporation ("ModusLink" or "Supply Chain").

ModusLink is a supply chain business process management company serving clients in markets such as consumer electronics, communications, computing, medical devices, software and retail. ModusLink designs and executes elements in its clients' global supply chains to improve speed to market, product customization, flexibility, cost, quality and service. The Company also produces and licenses an entitlement management solution for activation, provisioning, entitlement subscription and data collection from physical goods (connected products) and digital products.

Steel Partners and Steel Connect Exchange Transaction

On April 30, 2023, Steel Partners Holdings L.P., (“Steel Holdings”) and the Company executed a series of agreements in which Steel Holdings and certain of its affiliates (the “Steel Partners Group”) agreed to transfer certain marketable securities held by the Steel Partners Group to the Company in exchange for 3.5 million shares of Series E Convertible Preferred Stock of the Company (the “Series E Convertible Preferred Stock”, and, such transfer and related transactions, the “Exchange Transaction”). Following approval on June 6, 2023 by the Company's stockholders, pursuant to NASDAQ Marketplace Rules, the Series E Convertible Preferred Stock is convertible into an aggregate of 19.8 million shares of the Company's common stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “common stock” or “Common Stock”), and will vote together with the Company's common stock and participate in any dividends paid on the Company's common stock, in each case on an as-converted basis. Upon conversion of the Series E Convertible Preferred Stock, the Steel Partners Group would hold approximately 84.0% of the outstanding equity interests of the Company. The Exchange Transaction closed on May 1, 2023, which is the date that the consideration was exchanged between Steel Holdings and the Company.

Predecessor/Successor Reporting

On May 1, 2023, the Exchange Transaction resulted in Steel Holdings obtaining control of the Company for financial statement consolidation purposes. Steel Holdings does not consolidate the Company for Federal income tax purposes because the ownership in the Company is dispersed between different federal tax consolidation groups within Steel Holdings. The Company elected pushdown accounting in which it uses Steel Holdings' basis of accounting, which reflects the fair market value of the Company’s assets and liabilities at the date of the Exchange Transaction. As a result, the Company has reflected the required pushdown accounting adjustments in its consolidated financial statements. Due to the application of pushdown accounting, the Company’s consolidated financial statements and certain footnote disclosures include a black line division between the two distinct periods to indicate the application of two different bases of accounting, which may not be comparable, between the periods presented. The pre- exchange period through April 30, 2023 is referred to as the "Predecessor" period. The post-exchange period, May 1, 2023 through July 31, 2023, includes the impact of pushdown accounting and is referred to as the "Successor" period. See Note 3 - "Exchange Transaction" for further information regarding the Exchange Transaction and the application of pushdown accounting.

Disposition of Interest in Aerojet Shares

As a result of the Exchange Transaction, the Company recorded $202.7 million to investments, which represents the fair value of the Aerojet common stock transferred to Steel Connect. As of July 31, 2023, the Company had disposed of all its interest in Aerojet common stock. The majority of Aerojet common stock was purchased when L3 Harris closed its merger with Aerojet. As of July 31, 2023, the Company received $53.3 million in cash and had a receivable of $154.5 million for proceeds receivable, which was received in August 2023. The Company received total net proceeds of $207.8 million in exchange for all of its Aerojet shares.

Disposition of IWCO Direct

On February 25, 2022, the Company entered into a transaction agreement (the “Transaction Agreement”) with (a) IWCO Direct Holding Inc. (''IWCO Direct" or "Direct Marketing") and its indirect subsidiaries, (b) Cerberus Business Finance, LLC, in its capacities as collateral agent and administrative agent under a financing agreement (in such capacities, the “Agent”), dated as of December 15, 2017, between IWCO Direct, IWCO Direct’s direct and indirect subsidiaries, the Agent and the lenders party thereto (the “Lenders”) (the “Financing Agreement”), (c) the Lenders, (d) the Lenders or their respective designees listed on the signature pages to the Transaction Agreement under the caption “Participating Lender Purchasers” (the “Participating Lender Purchasers”), (e) SPH Group Holdings LLC (the “Sponsor”) and (f) Instant Web Holdings, LLC (the “Buyer”), an entity owned by the Participating Lender Purchasers. On the Effective Date (as defined in the Transaction Agreement) and

pursuant to the terms of the Transaction Agreement, the Company transferred all of its interests in IWCO Direct to the Buyer as part of a negotiated restructuring of the capital structure and certain financial obligations of IWCO Direct under the Financing Agreement as contemplated by the Transaction Agreement. The assets and liabilities and results of operations of the IWCO Direct business are reported as discontinued operations for all periods presented. See Note 4 - "Discontinued Operations" for additional information.

All references made to financial data in this Annual Report are to the Company's continuing operations, unless otherwise specifically noted.