I don't think dividends need to be paid out of earnings either. That's normally how it's done and EIGH has indicated they are paying out 30% of "retained profits" (presumably retained earnings), though they didn't specify over what period that calculation would be used.
The "relative earnings" statement in the $40 million windfall PR is very hard to make sense of. It talks about non-dilutive stock and unique financing mechanisms, but provides no details. It's hard to see how any windfall would be to earnings, as opposed to an investment or loan.
Any company paying a cash dividend of course needs the cash to make the payment. I don't believe it has to come from earnings, but it would be unlikely someone would buy equity or loan money so that the company could pay cash back to its stockholders.
The only times I've seen dividends not be a portion of profits is when a company sells an asset or gets a windfall from another source and returns money to shareholders in the form of a dividend. Usually that's accounted for as a "return of capital" and treated as a reduction in the cost basis, not a normal dividend.
I think EIGH had about $1 million in retained earnings as of last quarter. 30% of that comes out to about 23/100ths of a cent per share in dividend. They also reserved the right to issue a stock dividend if the cash/share dividend was less than 10 cents/share, which at $14 million seems likely.
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