My notes on this year's meeting as I ride up I-95:
In attendance were Glenn Estrella, Barbara Johnson, Jeffrey Sawyers, Drew West, 2 support staff, and 7 shareholders, one of which appeared to duck in and out of the meeting at various points. I was told that there were 22 shareholders listening in on the dubious audio feed. I should have brought my own mikes and mixer, Drew promises to fix that for next year. There was one gentleman in attendance who has owned shares since the very beginning I believe, one gentleman who purchased shares after the LTAS sale and folks at purchase points everywhere in between.
Forgive me if some of the following is duplicate information. And please, I am only the messenger and will try to relay accurately the tone and the intent of the people and their comments.
Drew made it very clear that accountability and real business plans were to be his modus operandi going forward. He stated that in the third quarter we will see a business plan for GTC growth as they work towards opening up the US sales channels. At this point, GTC is a self-sustaining, profitable segment of the business. And, of course it is the only revenue generating part of WSGI at the moment. He also stated that a business plan for Argus commercialization will be presented soon as well. It seems that the plan is nearly complete. In regards to Argus, Trident and EWA are active partners in its continuing development including the miniaturization of the payload. He mentioned there are companies currently looking at the Argus as a vehicle to provide internet connectivity throughout the world where there currently is none. Without saying exactly what companies they are talking to, he said they are companies like Google, Facebook or Amazon. He also spoke about future acquisitions. His considerations when examining a potential purchase are " will it detract from current business?" and "will it increase shareholder value?" IMO, Drew is bringing a common sense business approach to developing sales strategies and market opportunities. If home runs are to be hit, they will probably only come amongst many singles and multiple reliable players running the bases. Setting reasonable, metered goals and providing real world methods to achieve those goals will be Drew's preferred method of execution going forward, IMO.
This differs from Glenn's shoot from the hip style. But, Glenn makes no excuses for who he his and what he has had to do to keep the company from dissolving. As he put it, it's been like the juggler who keeps multiple plates spinning on sticks and his attention has always been, first and foremost, on the plate that is falling the fastest. Glenn spoke about many things in all candor, IMO. 1) the SEC still hovers and it's nearly impossible to talk about things unless they are material events. Barbara also spoke up and apologized for not being able to talk about certain things to shareholders. 2) The legacy debt has been prohibitive to getting substantial, reasonable financing. 3) the ground station business environment has been unfavorable, although they continue to talk with potential foreign government and corporate customers. Glenn said that as long as a foreign entity is not a threat to the US, they will consider all possibilities. 4) LTAS and BIB. This was a tough topic for him to discuss. He spent a lot of time and effort at Fort Polk working with commanders and troops. They loved the product. They felt lives could have been saved if they had these in service during the war. They wanted to buy many units. IMO, Glenn thought he had opened the kind of pipeline we all hoped for. After many hours training, tweaking, paperwork and jumping through hoops, at the end of the day, sequestration wouldn't allow purchases. WSGI could no longer afford to keep LTAS, there simply wasn't enough money to support it, so they had to sell it. Glenn feels that the deal they got was fair. LTAS has no big orders in the pipeline, WSGI received cash up front, substantial investment capital to keep the doors open and develop the Argus and an asset with DRNE shares that they hope to monetize when the time is right. He felt sequestration would wane in the future and the hope is that it will help the asset they own in DRNE. In the meantime, the weight of LTAS is lifted and the company can focus on it's revenue generator and it's potential revenue generator.
Many questions were asked, some handled in my comments above. I asked Glenn if a reverse split was a possibility in the future and he made it clear that all options are on the table if they decide it benefits the shareholder and the possibility of procuring better financing. I also asked what the source of the millions in legacy debt was and how they planned on ridding themselves of it. Barbara fielded this question. She said they were trying to figure out if the debt was legitimate. The history of the debt predates any current management and they are questioning its authenticity. I asked if legal proceedings might be involved to clear the debt and she said that depending on what they find, maybe.
And last, but not least, they served water, coffee, danishes and muffins.
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