Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am John Duke, President, CEO, and Director of Harvard Bioscience. I would like to welcome you all to this special meeting of stockholders and thank you for your ongoing support of Harvard Bioscience. I will act as chairman of this meeting. The meeting will now officially come to order. I will now conduct the formal business of the meeting as set forth in the company's notice of special meeting and proxy statement. We will now review a few formalities. The polls opened today, March 6, 2026 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time for voting on all matters before the meeting. If you have not already voted and wish to vote, the polls will remain open until we finish presenting the proposals and close the polls.
You do not need to vote during the meeting if you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote. On the virtual meeting webpage, you will find the agenda for the meeting. You will also find the rules of conduct for today's meeting. Please review these rules carefully. Note that only stockholders who are logged into the meeting using their 16-digit control number will be able to vote and submit questions at today's meeting. Only Harvard Bioscience stockholders of record at the close of business on January 21st, 2026 or holders of a valid proxy for today's meeting are entitled to vote at today's meeting. Stockholders who have entered a valid 16-digit control number are able to view the stockholder list available during this meeting on the bottom panel of your screen.
I have also received an affidavit from Broadridge Financial Solutions certifying that the delivery of records related to the company's Special Meeting scheduled for March 6, 2026 to all stockholders of record as of the record date was made by means of a mailing which commenced on January 30, 2026. I will file the affidavit with the records of the meeting. At this time, I'd like to note that Lou Larsen, a representative of Broadridge Financial Solutions, has been appointed by the board to serve as the Inspector of Election at today's meeting. Mr. Larsen has signed the customary oath of office to execute his duties with strict impartiality. We will file this oath with the records of the meeting. I've been informed by the Inspector of Election that a majority in voting power of our outstanding common stock is present by remote communication or represented by proxy.
Based on that information, I therefore declare that a quorum exists, and this meeting is duly constituted for the transaction of business. We will now proceed with the formal business of this meeting. The first item of business is to approve an amendment to the company's Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to effect a reverse stock split of the company's issued and outstanding common stock at a ratio in the range of 1 for 5 and 1 for 15, with such ratio to be determined at the discretion of the board of directors. You can read more about this proposal on our definitive proxy statement under the heading Proposal 1, Reverse Stock Split. The board unanimously recommends that stockholders vote for this proposal.
The second item of business is to approve the adjournment or postponement of the Special Meeting, if necessary, to continue to solicit votes for Proposal 1. You can read more about this proposal in our definitive proxy statement under the heading Proposal 2, Approval of the Adjournment of the Special Meeting, if necessary, to solicit additional proxies if there are not sufficient votes in favor of Proposal 1. The board unanimously recommends that stockholders vote for this proposal. That was the final item of business for today's meeting. If you wish to vote and you haven't already, please vote now by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions. You do not need to vote electronically if you have already sent in your signed proxy or if you have voted by telephone or internet. We will pause briefly before closing the voting polls.
The time is now 10:04 A.M. Eastern Time on March 6, 2026, the polls are now closed for voting. Mr. Larsen has provided me with a preliminary report of the Inspector of Election. I will cause the final report of the Inspector of Election to be kept within the company's records of the special meeting. Based on the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election, 97.63% of the votes cast in the proposal to approve an amendment to the company's Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to effect a reverse stock split were for the approval of this proposal. 97.71% of the votes cast in the proposal to adjourn this special meeting if necessary to continue to solicit votes for Proposal 1 were for the approval of this proposal.
This concludes the preliminary voting results. The final tally of the votes will be published within four business days in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Thank you for our stockholders and our board of directors for your support of Harvard Bioscience. I now declare that the meeting is adjourned. If any stockholders have submitted questions through the Ask a Question box found on the web portal for this meeting, we will respond to those questions with stockholders separately. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our special meeting. I want to thank all of our stockholders and everyone on the line today for your continued support of Harvard Bioscience.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.