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Thanks, Engineer. (Also thanks to TJ.) I didn’t know what the heck was going on.
TJ, are you saying person A is putting in low offers (which they don’t want to actually sell) or enormous size offers (which they also don’t want to actually sell) so holders will think the price will be going down or is capped, and so will sell to A at the bid?
Here is the recent activity:
MM Bid Size Ask Size Comment
ETMM 0.0260 5,000
ETMM (me) 0.0260 100,000
The .026 / 5000 disappeared with no fill
ETMM 0.0263 5,000
ETMM (me) 0.0264 100,000
The .0263 / 5000 disappeared with no fill
ETMM 0.0279 1,107,000
Changed a few minutes later to .0275
ETMM 0.0275 1,107,000
Changed a few minutes later to .0274
ETMM 0.0274 1,107,000
I’m no trader, so at that point
I decided to cancel my bid. Now it’s back to
ETMM 0.0270 5,000
It might be worth seeing that portion in black and white.
The unknown is whether they really will be able to “pick the right titles and market them properly” which apparently is no small feat. There’s a lot riding on the Regal arrangement, but their history shows that if they fall down, they pick themselves up and try something else. I’m still not convinced, though, that they learn the right lessons from their mistakes, but I am still hopeful.
TRANSCRIPT:
ERIC. Doug.
Q. How does Hannover House plan to fund new title acquisitions if the majority of Twelve revenues are going to eliminate the debt?
ERIC. The question was, “How does Hannover House intend to acquire new title acquisitions if the majority of Twelve revenues are going to retire Twelve debt.” It’s a good question. And it comes back to the statement that Fred and I said earlier, is that 2010 has been a windfall for the company in ways that aren’t necessarily shown on the Balance Sheet. We have gone from being a boutique DVD distributor in Arkansas to being one of the invited key players at all the major film festivals for the acquisition of films.
We have been approached to handle All’s Faire in Love, which is being distributed internationally, video, and television through MGM/UA. Why would they come to us for a deal like that? Well, it’s a good title for their video divisions, but it’s not big enough for MGM’s theatrical division. They want to come out with the new James Bond film on 3,000 screens, and so something like All’s Faire in Love which is 40, 50, maybe 100 theatres, it’s great for their video label, but it’s too much of a distraction for the theatrical. This is a great opportunity for a company like Hannover House, and we have been offered a huge number of titles on deals that vary from no advance at all, to P&A being provided by the production companies. So the acquisition of titles on a going-forward basis is not a problem for the company. The problem is going to be picking the right titles and marketing them properly.
We are one of only twelve companies in the United States that has full-service distribution, where we sell to theatres, we sell to international, we sell to television, and we have our own direct video label that does not have to go through a major studio. There are other companies out there that have theatrical only and they have to go through a major studio. And there’s benefits, as you pointed out with Twelve, in going to a major studio for certain titles, but there’s also negatives. The negatives are you lose control of the cash flow, you lose control of the release date, the packaging, the price point, you can’t package your smaller titles with the bigger titles because the major studio maybe doesn’t want your smaller titles. So we feel that we’re in the best position of any other independent out there right now, perhaps except for Anchor Bay Entertainment because they’re very similar to us in what they’re doing. They’re primarily DVD and Blu-ray but they also have theatrical titles and their own video label.
But we feel really encouraged because there’s only a couple of places where people with high quality mid-level films can take them to, and we’re one of those places. And people saw that we opened Twelve on 231 screens. We didn’t do the box office, but they saw the billboards and the taxi tops in New York City and the TV commercials and they saw our trailer, they saw our actors on the talk shows and on all of the Entertainment Tonights and the Access Hollywood, all those programs, and they said, “You know what, these guys, they made noise for this move, they went out and made noise. Maybe we should consider them for our film.” So acquiring titles on a going-forward basis is not expected to have the same dollar cost that happened to us in 2010 when we had to buy our way into the club.
FRED. And I will say that paying for those releasing costs will be done in a variety of ways. First of all, we’re optimistic that there will be positive cash flow from Twelve even after paying the creditors for Twelve. Secondly, Twelve’s not our only source of income. We have other income coming in on a regular basis. Thirdly, we have excellent relationships and excellent, very good terms with vendors that we can use for releasing costs. And lastly, we are certainly not averse, and we’re talking on a daily and weekly basis with the same and other sources for venture capital / investment banker funds for our larger releases.
ERIC. So if a really substantial title came to the company and we needed to pay an advance that we were unable to do, we might in that particular case reach out to a private investment group and say, “Would you like to co-venture with us. You put up the advance and we’ll give you a portion of our distribution fees.” And we have used that in the past, we hope to use it a lot less in the future because we don’t want to dilute our fee basis, but so far acquiring new titles has not been an issue.
Mike, can you tell me where Eric said they’ve struggled as a distributor? I’m not doubting your word, I’d just like to know the source and see it in context if possible.
TIA.
Explanation for share surrender
All’s Faire in July 29 PR
“In addition to matters of corporate filings, the company's entertainment division, Hannover House, provided updates for the release dates of key theatrical titles for the remainder of the year. The romantic comedy, "ALL'S FAIRE IN LOVE" starring Christina Ricci is scheduled to open in theatres on September 30;”
redmoose, thanks for your work up to this point. You did a good job.
Wavedreamer, you've left me in the dust.
I only made the Sony comment – at the last moment as I was posting – because KGerbil had mentioned Sony specifically and I didn’t think that the Sony situation was caused by the e-mail scenario described in the NSA video and in the section quoted from the Time article. I shouldn't have mentioned it at all since I know zero about it. I also know zero about DRM.
Sorry if I confused the issue.
The video from the NSA Trusted Computing conference last September specifically describes this scenario from the Time article and speaks about how Trusted Computing provides solutions.
I’m thankful if it’s at 16, as my count came up with about 10.
Below is the 31 theatre list from turtle-film.com. If you throw some of these zip codes into this Google site, you won’t find Turtle at all of these theatres. (This Google movie site works more efficiently than the ones I struggled with yesterday.)
http://www.google.com/movies
Do you suppose Lauren was relying on turtle-film.com?
P.S. if anyone knows how to confirm where a film is playing in a less tedious fashion, please let us know.
Natl. Amuse. Commack 15
100 Long Island Expressway
Commack NY 11725 | (631) 462-6952
Regal Union Square Stadium 14
850 Broadway
New York NY 10003 | (212) 253-6266
Movieland Cinemas
1850 New York 112
Coram NY 11727 | (631) 696-4200
Harkins Chino Hills 18
3070 Chino Avenue
Chino Hills CA 91709 | (909) 627-8010
Laemmle Music Hall 3
9036 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills CA 90211 | (310) 478-3836
Cinimark Century Stadium 25
1701 W. Katella Ave.
Orange CA 92867 | (800) 326-3264
Cinemark 22
44790 Valley Central Way
Lancaster CA 93534 | (661) 941-7086
Regal Foothill Ranch 22
26602 Towne Center Drive
Foothill Ranch CA 92610 | (949) 588-9402
Regal Tustin Market Place 6
2961 El Camino Real
Tustin CA 92782 | (714) 669-9279
Regal / Edwds Corona Crossings Stadium 18
2650 Tuscany Street
Corona CA 92881 | (951) 582-0872
Regal San Jacinto Metro 12
1599 S. San Jacinto Avenue
San Jacinto CA 92583 | (951) 487-0879
Regal / Edwds Jurupa Stadium 14
8032 Limonite Ave.
Riverside CA 92509 | (951) 361-4823
Regal Horton Plaza
475 Horton Plaza
San Diego CA 92101 | (619) 232-3340
Regal Rancho Del Rey
1025 Tierra Del Rey
Chula Vista CA 91910 | (619) 216-7601
Regal Oceanside
401 Mission Ave
Oceanside CA 92054 | (760) 439-1327
Regal Parkway Plaza
405 Parkway Plaza
El Cajon CA 92020 | (619) 593-0415
Santikos Paladium
17703 IH 10 W
San Antonio TX 78257 | (210) 496-2221
Santikos Silverado
11505 West Loop 1604
San Antonio TX 78254 | (866) 420-8626
Santikos Embassy
13707 Embassy Row
San Antonio TX 78216 | (210) 496-2221
Regal Pointe Stadium 20
9101 International Drive
Orlando FL 32819 | (407) 248-9228
Regal Oviedo Marketplace
1500 Oviedo Marketplace Blv
Orlando FL 32765 | (407) 977-1107
Rave Motion Pictures Avenue 16
2241 Town Centre Ave.
Orlando FL 32940 | (321) 775-1210
Cinemark Festival Bay Mall
5150 International Drive
Orlando FL 32819 | (407) 352-1042
Malco Wolfchase
2766 Germantown Pkwy
Memphis TN 38133 | (901) 384-4677
Malco Towne Cinema
380 Market Blvd.
Collierville TN 38017 | (901) 850-0522
Malco Cinema 12
1200 S. Waldron Rd., # 140
Ft. Smith AR 72903 | (479) 484-0915
Malco Razorback
2956 N. Steele Blvd.
Fayetteville AR 72703 | (479) 521-4080
Malco Towne Center 12
621 N. 47th St.
Rogers AR 72756 | (479) 631-5865
Rave Pensacola Bayou 15
5149 Bayou Blvd.
Pensacola FL 32503 | (850) 475-2240
Rave Orange Beach Wharf 15
5149 Wharf Lane
Orange Beach AL 36561 | (251) 981-4444
Carmike Wynnsong 16
785 Schillinger Road South
Mobile AL 36695 | (251
Turtle: holdovers and new theatres
I don’t vouch for the absolute accuracy of this list, as it was a very tedious and disorganized process, but this is what I found. (turtle-film.com has not been updated). Finally, the best approach seemed to be to go to each chain’s site.
HOLDOVERS July 2, 2011
0 – New York
1 – L.A. (3D) plus another theatre not on turtle-film site with one 11:00 am showing
1 – San Diego (3D)
0 – San Antonio
2 – Orlando (3D)
NEW
2 – Memphis
3 – Arkansas
1 – Mobile
From the SHM
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12031352
I joined the company in 2002. The company, Hannover House, was a boutique book publisher, and at that time DVD was a rapidly-emerging media for home entertainment, yet the major chains like Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, Hollywood, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Best Buy, had all reached a saturation point where they didn’t want more vendors. If you were a film producer and even if you had a really high-profile, exciting commercial film, and you went to Wal-Mart or Blockbuster with it, they’d say, “This is a great film. We’d love to carry it, but we aren’t going to buy it from you directly. You have to go through one of our other vendors. And so that created a little bit of a roadblock for independent producers but it also created a great opportunity for the people that were already established as vendors. I purchased Hannover House because it was already set up with almost all of the major retailers as a book vender, and so it was easy for us to be kind of grandfathered into the vendor community by just adding DVDs to an existing vendor. And I’m distressed or pleased, I don’t know it’s probably equal measure, to say that most of the major chains closed that loophole right after we did that, right after we added DVDs. They said, “You know what, even if you’re an existing vendor, don’t add home entertainment products, we have enough vendors already.”
Yes, I know it was from before the opening. The point of posting it is that it gives an overview of the week-end’s new releases. Also, his opinion about the number of theatres that Turtle opened in is interesting. I think Jimbo pointed out last year that “platform” releases are the most tricky.
Is it possible for someone to confirm that?
It was pointed out by the resident basher that at the bottom of the-numbers page it says, “Our box office charts are compiled from data provided to us by distributors.” (post # 68621)
http://www.the-numbers.com/charts/thisweek.php
When I add up the theatres on turtle-film.com, I get 23.
23+1=24
(I also hope that the SeaWorld numbers are not included, but so far I don’t think we know for sure.)
Report (prior to opening) on week-end’s limited releases from the-numbers
http://www.the-numbers.com/interactive/newsStory.php?newsID=6326
Will Limited Releases Go on an Incredible Journey?
"This week's list of limited releases is dominated by no less than six documentaries, including two opening in twenty or more theaters each. Conan O'Brien: Can't Stop has the most buzz going into the weekend, but I think in the end the non-documentary A Better Life has the best shot at success."
"Turtle: The Incredible Journey
A nature documentary that follows a loggerhead turtle as it travels from where it was born on a beach in Florida, to the North Atlantic, to Africa, and finally back home again. The reviews are good, but not great, and there have been a lot of nature documentaries to have come out since earth became an unexpected worldwide hit a few years ago. Turtle: The Incredible Journey opens tonight in 20 theaters in major cities nationwide, but I'm unsure if that will prove to be too many to thrive."
24601, another take on “the device”
I think you have it right when you say, kindly, “I feel that the people at Wave are not always rigorous about their written communications, so when they write something that seems nuanced, I don't know how seriously to take it.”
IMO it would be really ridiculous for Steven to suddenly start using the word “device” to mean the TPM or to mean the combined identity of the user and the machine. If that wouldn’t confuse the issue, I don’t know what would.
So he said, “More specifically, the TPM enables IT managers to create, sign and store authentication keys within a PC’s hardware, strongly binding the identity of the machine and its user to the device.” I believe that the simplest explanation is that he used the word “device” at the end of that sentence because it’s a more generic term than "machine" (and he had been using it throughout the article) - and he simply didn’t realize how confusing the sentence became. IMO he meant (and should have said), “strongly binding the identity of the machine and its user to the machine” or “strongly binding the identity of the device and its user to the device.”
Review From the Front Row
http://www.fromthefrontrow.net/2011/06/review-turtle-incredible-journey.html
I think that could be called a lukewarm response. Don’t movies, especially limited release movies, especially documentaries, need word of mouth to succeed? Wouldn’t it have to be better than “pretty good” to hit $5 million?
This is Eric at the SHM concerning Winter’s Bone:
How About Calling Your Senators?
I just called the offices of both my senators (Schumer and Gillibrand). I said I was calling about cybersecurity and mentioned the Lockheed Martin breach as the impetus for my call. Both people I spoke to were aware of the Lockheed Martin breach, but were not, of course, aware of Trusted Platform Modules.
I told them about TPMs, how they can identify a computer and how a company can limit access to its network to its own computers. I mentioned the Trusted Computing Group and the NSA Trusted Computing Division, and the past and upcoming September conferences.
I mentioned various other aspects, such as entrenched IT security experts and the slowness of DoD adoption. I mentioned Joe Trippi to one. I mentioned Wave as the reason that I have any knowledge about the subject.
Senator Schumer’s rep asked if I thought legislation was needed. I said I didn’t know, but somebody needs to be out there making some noise about it.
Each senator's rep said they prepare a daily report for the senator about what constituents have called about.
H1N1 Phase 1 PR
If news validating the effectiveness and safety of the products produced by the platform doesn’t move the stock, this could be a long wait.
iBio Announces Positive H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Clinical Trial Results
Press Release Source: iBio, Inc. On Thursday June 2, 2011, 8:00 am EDT
NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- iBio, Inc. (NYSE AMEX: IBIO) today announced positive interim results from a Phase 1 clinical trial of an iBioLaunch™ platform-produced subunit vaccine directed against Influenza A/California/04/09 (H1N1). The vaccine demonstrated strong induction of dose correlated immune responses, with or without adjuvant, as assessed by virus microneutralization antibody assays and hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) responses. The vaccine was safe and well tolerated at all doses when administered with and without adjuvant.
“These expected positive results are an important confirmation of the utility of the iBioLaunch platform, not only for rapid response to infectious disease challenges such as influenza, but also as a preferred approach to a broad range of vaccine and therapeutic products,” said Robert Kay, iBio’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
The clinical trial was sponsored by iBio’s research collaborator, the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB) and the experimental vaccine was manufactured in the pilot plant operating the iBioLaunch platform located at CMB’s Newark, Delaware facility. The clinical trial was conducted at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Clinical Trials Center (WRAIR-CTC). Safety and reactogenicity assessments were completed at WRAIR-CTC, and immunogenicity evaluation was performed by the Influenza Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study was a single center, placebo-controlled, single blinded dose escalation study to preliminarily assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of different vaccine formulations and doses. The study evaluated eighty healthy volunteers from 18 to 50 years of age who received two intramuscular injections of 15 micrograms (mcg), 45 mcg, or 90 mcg of vaccine with or without adjuvant; placebo; or reference vaccine on study days 0 and 21. Final results of the study are expected to be available by the end of the year.
About iBio, Inc.
iBio develops and offers product applications of its iBioLaunch™ platform, providing collaborators full support for turn-key implementation of its technology for both proprietary and biosimilar products. The iBioLaunch platform is a proprietary, transformative technology for development and production of biologics using transient gene expression in unmodified green plants. Advantages over other systems include: success with proteins difficult or impossible to produce with other methods; broadly applicable to biologics, including monoclonal antibodies, other therapeutic proteins and vaccines; enables rapid development and validation of modular, scalable, and optionally robotic, multi-product manufacturing facilities; production time measured in weeks instead of months or more. Additional benefits include a practically unlimited surge capacity for remedial action against bioterrorism and pandemic disease; product entry that is unconstrained by traditional process patents, and significantly lower capital and operating costs for comparable production. Further information is available at: www.ibioinc.com.
ekabeht, in my post #3631, with a little extrapolation it looked like April SnapMeUp sign-ups were 1,673,657. This was about 300,000 less than reported site sign-ups of "nearly 2 million." I concluded that, “This seems to tell us that SnapMeUp is NOT an extremely accurate predictor of site sign-ups – unless it turns out to be consistently below by a certain percentage or amount.”
This month, again with some extrapolation, SnapMeUp sign-ups are down about 150,000 to about 1.5 million. It’s certainly not encouraging, but it's hard to make predictions at this point with only one other month of comparisons.
Maybe we have to hope they can get by with "nearly 2 million" again.
Today’s news, with the statements from the Sabin Institute, supports this assertion from the Noble Conference: “Finally we now know that our technology is capable of producing things that cannot be made with other systems. This is no longer theoretical. We’ve done it, we’ve done it more than once...."
++++++++++++++++
iBio Announces Successful Production of Critical Hookworm Vaccine Antigen
Today : Thursday 26 May 2011
iBio, Inc. (NYSE AMEX: IBIO) today announced that its proprietary iBioLaunch™ Platform successfully expressed the hookworm-derived molecule known as NaAPR1M-74, which will be evaluated as a potential vaccine candidate for human hookworm disease.
The expression of this antigen represents a major breakthrough in the development of a human hookworm vaccine. Such a vaccine will provide significant public health benefit by preventing a parasitic disease that currently affects more than 576 million people worldwide and is a leading cause of anemia in the world’s poorest countries. This accomplishment highlights the ability of iBioLaunch technology to overcome inherent limitations of other expression systems.
The success resulted from collaboration between iBio’s research partner, the Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology (FCMB), and the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Production of initial quantities of partially purified NaAPR1M-74 was completed last week at FCMB’s pilot manufacturing facility employing the iBioLaunch Technology. This product was later transferred to Walter Reed Army Institute for Research (WRAIR) for final purification to formulate enough material to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials.
“We are very pleased with the success in expressing a pilot batch of this antigen in collaboration with iBio and FCMB,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, President of Sabin Vaccine Institute. “It has been extremely difficult to produce this protein effectively, as evidenced by multiple prior unsuccessful attempts using traditional production systems.”
“The expression of this complex protein with the iBioLaunch™ Platform not only moves us closer to a solution for hundreds of millions of people who suffer from hookworm, but also bodes well for other complex protein expression challenges,” said Dr. Philip Russell, a member of the Board of Trustees of Sabin Vaccine Institute and member of the Board of Directors of iBio.
Clinical trials will be conducted by the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative (HHVI). Established in 2000 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and with additional support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the HHVI is the first and only program that aims to reduce the prevalence of human hookworm infection through research and development, timely dissemination of results, innovation, and advocacy.
About iBio, Inc.
iBio, Inc. is a biotechnology company offering its proprietary, transformative iBioLaunch technology platform for the production of biologics including therapeutic proteins and vaccines. The iBioLaunch platform uses transient gene expression in green plants for superior efficiency in protein production. Advantages include significantly lower capital and process costs, and the technology is ideally suited for complex proteins and for applications where speed, scalability, and surge capacity are important. The iBioLaunch technology was developed for iBio by the not-for-profit Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology (FCMB) during the past eight years to overcome the inadequacies of existing technologies. iBio granted a fully paid-up, non-exclusive, non-commercial license to the iBioLaunch Technology solely for the purpose of developing, manufacturing and distributing hookworm vaccine for Global Access Objectives – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation program to provide vaccines for the people most in need within developing countries of the world – reserving a right of first refusal to provide each of technology transfer and/or manufacturing services required to achieve the Global Access objectives on a commercially reasonable, competitive and sustainable cost basis. iBio owns the intellectual property and technology developed at FCMB, and continues to sponsor development and application of the technology for biological applications in human health. Further information is available at www.ibioinc.com.
About Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology
Fraunhofer USA CMB, a division of Fraunhofer USA, Inc., is a not-for-profit research organization whose mission is to develop safe and effective vaccines targeting infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. The technology CMB developed for iBio, Inc. provides a safe, rapid and economical alternative for both vaccine and therapeutic protein production. The Center conducts research in the area of plant biotechnology, utilizing new, cutting edge technologies applicable to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human and animal diseases. The Center houses individuals with expertise and excellence in plant virology, pathology, molecular biology, immunology, vaccinology, protein engineering, and biochemistry. Further information is available at www.fraunhofer-cmb.org.
About Sabin Vaccine Institute
Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit, 501(c) (3) organization of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering caused by vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world’s most pervasive health care challenges. Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, treat, and eliminate vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases by developing new vaccines, advocating use of existing vaccines, and promoting increased access to affordable medical treatments. For more information, please visit www.sabin.org.
Only 20 games left this afternoon
I just went over to check out the games on Quepasa and I find that there are now only 20 games in total. There were 45 before. It’s probably good to stay on top of it and remove the deadwood. Most of those remaining were in the 20 most popular, but not all. Of course, management can see the actual usage numbers vs. sign-ups.
On the other hand, small things like Word of the Day and Random Classic Art can be fun for a few people. But like any other app, they have to be good. I happened to try Word of the Day last week, and the few words I saw were uselessly commonplace, like “baseless.”)
STILL THERE
Buddy Poke!
Doodle Blogger
EcoMas
EMI Lyric
Goodgame Farmer
Goodgame Mafia
GrabGames
Green Farm
Lil' Brownies
Mysterious Tarot
PacMac v 2.6
PokerPlace
Pokerville
Satisfashion
Snap Me Up
Trio
War Metal
Wonderful City
WoShamBo 1.2
Xfire Arcade
GONE
Anne Geddes Clock
Art of the Day
Aztec Calendar
Calendar
Carta Natal
Chinese Zodiac
Confess
Current Moon Phase
Daily Tour
Friendship Quote of the Day
Google Calendar
Google Map your Friends
Horoscope Diarios
Horoscope para Aries
Land of Destiny
Majong
Mayan Calendar
Pregnancy Calendar
Quotes Book
Random Classic Art
Search YouTube
ToDo
Tu Nombre en Japones
Twitter Tracker
Word of the Day
QPSA Games Update 5/18/11
ekabeht, here is last week’s. I'm beginning to wonder if Quepasa users are very interested in games.
One interesting thing, though, is that Satisfashion got more sign-ups here than on Orkut, where it must have gotten lost in the shuffle. I tried playing it briefly: It crashed once and I find that the Help/FAQ doesn’t load. They’ve got to get their act together is this regard.
I do think that Quepasa has a better set-up for its games than Orkut. Quepasa lets you see the first part of the description without your having to click on the game and go to another screen to find out anything about it. I also like the “Featured Games” idea. But for our purposes I sure like that Orkut tells you how many people actually used the game in the previous week (assuming that's what "Usage/wk" means over there).
GJ, are you able to share any details on why you believe the phrase “solid as a rock” describes the company? I’m rooting for these guys, but solid as rock is not how I would describe their company at this point.
As we all know, they have cash flow problems, the theatrical side of the business is a difficult hit-driven business and they haven’t yet proved they can succeed at it, and their previous core business of second-tier DVD distribution is disappearing on them. As managers, they’ve also shown a troubling tendency to disappoint their investors with continuous missed deadlines.
As I’ve said before I like these guys, I think they’re honest, and I hope they get lucky. But can you say in any detail why, after your visit, you call the business solid as a rock?
Wonderful City May 23 2pm EDT
648,575 Popularity
686,402 Usage/week
105.8%
Thanks to Solumex, who pointed out how to find this
Other Games Plus MegaCity
Yes, and those Orkut numbers were averages, so it will be important to see how many people continue to play after a game gets established. We'll have to wait until the usage numbers aren't skewed by its being new.
Here are Satisfashion’s numbers.
26,360 Popularity
2,568 Usage/week
That’s 9.7%
19,410,133 Popularity
4,158,422 Usage/week
That’s 21.4%
7,392,078
5,639,355
That’s 76.3%
This is from Abbott at the Wedbush Conference in March.
Moving on to social games, just some of the basic stats for Latin America on how these games are monetized. This is – the numbers we show here are the average for Orkut for last year. People who signed up for a given game, 30% of them became active gamers, so they returned to that game, of which 1.5% became paying users, and they in turn on average spent about $10 a month, which compares to maybe $15 or so on Zynga. So lower than the U.S. But the amount of conversion that you see on these is phenomenal cause there just isn’t that much product out there and people, you know, love this stuff.
Link to Presentation at Noble Financial Conference
http://noble.mediasite.com/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=9c4b484150fd4f09b7933f24c8888e571d
Criteria for Picking Movies
I sure don’t like these parts:
"The IFTA Arbitrator found that it was undisputed that the defendants, particularly Hannover House, had repeatedly breached their contractual obligations and, indeed, the Arbitrator witnessed yet another breach firsthand by watching Hannover break a promise made at the arbitration to finally comply with the contract," said Bandlow. "Although Fantastic Films is disappointed in Hannover's failure to release this film in the U.S., my clients are happy that the Arbitrator and the Court have held defendants responsible for their improper conduct. We are pursuing every avenue to collect this award, including seeking to have defendants barred from participating in future film markets and we will continue to take any and all necessary steps until the Judgment is satisfied."
You have to assume that Fantastic Films was very angry with our heroes to embarrass them like this publicly. Eric and Fred have worked hard to get their reputation established, so I hope they are able to say something - without turning it into a public brawl. If they can somehow take the high road, that would be the best approach.
Most important, I guess, is that they pay it - quickly. Somehow. Maybe they have a few dollars left over from the Twelve DVD proceeds.
FeeBee
Re artificial light systems.
As we know, OriginOil has experience with an artificial light system, their Helix BioReactor. There's now a Client Services page on the site.
http://www.originoil.com/business/client-services.html
The Client Services page says, “In the years before it announced an exclusive focus on its industry-leading algae extraction technologies, OriginOil developed innovative technologies for algae growth. Our algae growth experts will employ these technologies exclusively to help our partners industrialize their algae production.” Then there is a diagram showing a Dynamic Control System, Quantum Fracturing for CO2 Feeding, the Helix BioReactor, and the MultiReactor with the caption “OriginOil will deploy its growth expertise to help partners overcome production challenges.”
Last fall I posted an interesting statement about electrically-lit systems from the OriginOil site. That page is not there now; the link now takes you to an overview of their current work focus. But, in any event, it sounds like they will have some useful experience for BARD (if BARD is for real).
Also, the expense of an artificial light system may be acceptable if the inputs are clean, allowing the output to be used for nutritional or pharmaceutical products.
Part of post #696 from last November:
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HELIX BIOREACTOR & MULTIREACTOR.
By the way, concerning OOIL’s Helix BioReactor growing method, I stumbled on this on OOIL’s website on the page about the MultiReactor system. (The MultiReactor system is the system that uses sunlight, gets the sunlight down into multiple growing layers, and also filters the light in order to get the best wavelengths for algae).
http://www.originoil.com/products/multireactor.html
“The MultiReactor is a response to the challenges of growing algae with 100% artificial light. While potentially very productive, any electrically-lit system such as OriginOil’s Helix BioReactor™ requires significant electrical energy, which only works when energy is available from waste sources (e.g. process heat) or in special circumstances where there is excess energy capacity (e.g. geothermal generation).”
I was really surprised to see this admission, as that is what I remember hearing from third parties about artificial light systems. But now OOIL has the MultiReactor growth technology to promote (in addition to the Helix BioReactor). The MultiReactor appears to have benefitted from some of the work done on the Helix BioReactor in terms of how to get light down into a contraption made of up layers.
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OriginOil and BARD Holding Inc.
http://algaenews.com/?cat=5
BARD Holding and OriginOil Announce Co-venture for Technology
Friday, May 6th, 2011
Conshohocken, PA – BARD Holding Inc. was recently selected by California based OriginOil, Inc. to form a co-venture for technology. BARD is a rapidly emerging leader in clean technology. OriginOil is a pioneering developer of algae-to-energy systems and systems integration.
BARD has developed the BA 1000, a patent-pending modular system of Photo BioReactors (PBRs) to cultivate algae at commercial scale. “Bard’s strategic co-venture with the publically-traded OriginOil makes it possible for us to supply much needed algae-based products to global markets upon demand,” according to BARD CEO, Surajit Khanna JD, PhD.
OriginOil’s breakthrough technology has led it to focus efforts on harvesting and extraction. “OriginOil’s harvesting and extraction technology coupled with Bard’s commercial algae production complete the end to end solution,” said Riggs Eckelberry, CEO, OriginOil. The two CEOs formalized the agreement last week while both were invited speakers at the European Algae Biomass Conference 2011, held in London, UK.
OriginOil was honored as 2010’s “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. last month. BARD and Algae Bioenergy Solutions LLC recently formed BARD/ABS Inc. (JV) to develop an algae production facility in Augusta, Georgia. Bard’s output has been analyzed and validated by multiple third party labs. Dr. Khanna added: “This is a very exciting period of growth for BARD. In addition to our U.S. ventures we are finalizing deals in Europe and are working with partners in the Asia Pacific market.”
About BARD Holding, Inc.:
Morrisville, PA based BARD Holding is a rapidly emerging leader in clean technology. BARD has developed a patent-pending modular system of Photo BioReactors (PBRs) to cultivate algae at commercial scale. In this sustainable process, algae is grown at rapid rates under artificial lighting with no environmental influence. The high-density oil is extracted and can be converted into jet-fuel, biodiesel and bioplastics, as well as used in numerous products in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets. BARD was named ‘Algaepreneur of 2009” by the National Algae Association and was recently nominated as “CleanTech Company of the Year” for 2012 Enterprise Awards by Pennsylvania’s PACT (Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies.) For more information, please see www.bardholding.com
About OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL)
OriginOil, Inc. is developing a breakthrough technology that will transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum. Much of the world’s oil and gas is made up of ancient algae deposits. Today, our technology will produce “new oil” from algae, through a cost-effective, high-speed manufacturing process. This endless supply of new oil can be used for many products, such as diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, plastics and solvents, without the global warming effects of petroleum. Other oil-producing feedstock, such as corn and sugarcane, often destroy vital farmlands and rainforests, disrupt global food supplies and create new environmental problems. Our unique technology, based on algae, is targeted at fundamentally changing our source of oil without disrupting the environment or food supplies. To learn more about OriginOil™, please visit our website at www.originoil.com.
Financial Arrangements
From the Money TV interview
QPSA May 4 Games Update
SNAPMEUP SIGN-UPS vs. SITE SIGN-UPS
I stupidly forgot to take readings on March 31st and April 30th, but the right hand column in the chart below covers the 35 days from March 30th to May 4th, which is 5 days longer than April. The total SnapMeUp sign-ups for that period is 1,952,602. That’s 55,789 per day. 55,789 x 5 = 278,945. 1,952,602 – 278.945 = 1,673,657. So that’s about 300,000 less than April site sign-ups reported in yesterday’s PR (reported as “nearly 2.0 million”).
So presumably about 300,000 people opted out of SnapMeUp when they signed up (or some people may have deleted SnapMeUp from their My Games list).
This seems to tell us that SnapMeUp is NOT an extremely accurate predictor of site sign-ups – unless it turns out to be consistently below by a certain percentage or amount.
WONDERFUL CITY
Wonderful City is moving on up. In the membership PR they stated, ““we are very pleased with the initial results of the Wonderful City beta-launch…” Is 43,000 in a couple of weeks out of millions of users something to be “very pleased” about? Maybe. At least it seems to have moved more quickly than the other titles.
WONDERFUL CITY PAYMENT SCREEN
Here’s the Wonderful City payment screen (English version). I thought it would be fun to post it as evidence of real money potentially coming to the site. But then I started wondering about the amounts and doing some calculations.
First, I wondered how many coins there were per dollar. A natural question, I think, as you decide what to buy.
What I think is going on here is that as you move up from the smaller to larger amounts they wanted to give you a slightly better deal, but they did it in an odd way and got a result that is quite confusing. For example, on the second row from the bottom, why not go to 55 instead of 56? That’s still more than double the 25 on the row below (for double the cost), but multiplied by 600 gives 33,000 in coins, still a round number for coins and still the same 600:1 ratio.
Ratio
Cost Dollars Coins (Coins to Dollars)
$62 645 390,000 604.65
$31 310 180,000 580.65
$25 240 140,000 583.33
$12 118 67,000 567.80
$6 56 32,000 571.43
$3 25 15,000 600.00
Cost
Cost Dollars Per Dollar % of Previous Row % of 25 for $3 Row
$ 62.00 645 0.096 96.124% 80.103%
$ 31.00 310 0.100 96.000%
$ 25.00 240 0.104 102.431%
$ 12.00 118 0.102 94.915%
$ 6.00 56 0.107 89.286%
$ 3.00 25 0.120
Well, they’ve been working under this approach since last year and they chose The Wild Hunt and Girlfriend under that approach.
The question may be, "What is a secondary title?" One could consider Winter’s Bone to be secondary, but it was a good movie, well-handled, and Eric said in the SHM that it was a great success in DVD. (U.S. theatrical $6.5 million, DVD $3.5 million). I’m not sure, but I think by “secondary” they may mean “not very good.”
I wasn’t sorry to see The Wild Hunt go. I don’t know why they chose it in the first place and I also don’t know why they let it go. They obviously weren’t anxious to release it.
I thought Girlfriend had a chance to do well. I don’t know why they let that go. I tend to think that the producers didn’t want to work with them after they missed that payment (just IMO). It would obviously not be a blockbuster, but I thought that if it’s as good as the trailer, and if it was handled well, it could do something comparable to Winter’s Bone. It has a built-in "interest factor" that would garner attention, so if it's good it could do very well. People will know it's there and remember it's there.
But choppers, they said in the SHM that the core business (distributing second tier DVD’s) essentially fell apart. That’s why they got into theatrical distribution, which, so far, they have not done well at. We all hope they will get lucky, but the core business, as I understand his words at the SHM, is not in good shape. I interpret the LionsGate idea as a nice “Emerald City” type goal, but they need to show the ability to have some basic success in theatrical distribution – with good movies distributed intelligently. They appear to be running on credit, and they need to have some success theatrically over the next few months IMO.
SHM about minute 3:28
“In the last couple of years the industry has faced a lot of turmoil. The turmoil has occurred for a variety of reasons. First of all there’s no longer a lot of shelf space for secondary titles. And that’s because there’s so many films available on DVD that the retailers have a choice where they can say, “Gee, for $9.95 we can carry Top Gun and the first two Mission Impossibles and maybe Pretty Woman.” And it makes it very difficult when you have titles that don’t have the same star panache, the same box office momentum or visibility, to get that shelf space because they’re really making the decision, “Do I put in this Hannover House title or do I create an extra facing for Iron Man 2.” And for a lot of the major accounts it’s not a hard decision to make, so it’s been very difficult in the last couple of years to place a lot of DVDs.
"Also eroding the DVD market has been the emergence of Blu-Ray. And a lot of the key accounts have taken shelf space away from the DVD category in order to create space for Blu-Ray. And again they’re usually gravitating towards the major studio hits. So suddenly it’s no longer is there space for my movie against Iron Man 2, there’s no space at all. There’s Iron Man 2 on DVD and now Iron Man 2 on Blu-Ray in the space that I otherwise might have competed for.
"As a result, it kind of put us in a difficult squeeze, and that set the stage for Fred and I to be very receptive to the opportunity, in December of 2009, of taking Hannover House and merging or doing a stock swap venture with Target Development Group. Target was not a shell per-se by the definition of a public company shell. There was some limited activity and there were assets in there and it was maintained through a securities counsel to make sure that the company was being maintained properly. But it provided an opportunity for Hannover to merge into a publicly-traded vehicle and create an opportunity for us to go out after the bigger titles. Because, you know, despite the many years that I’ve been in the video business, which is actually I think 26 years, and having relationships with many of the buyers that go all the way back to 1984, you know they still say, “Gee, Eric we really like you and we’d love to carry your movie but it’s just not quite high enough profile. Can you get us some theatrical product? If you get us some theatrical product we’ll create space for you. We won’t just give you one space, we’ll give you multiple facings, we’ll create a corrugated display as people walk in the front door. We’ll do some advertising on an instore monitor.” Suddenly the whole world of the oyster marketing opens up when you have these bigger theatrical titles.
"And Fred and I made a determination that having a bigger vehicle for the company would be a tool to help us provide not only financing opportunities but also to provide a greater level of confidence and comfort from the people who are program suppliers and people who would be vendors providing us lines of credit. There’s a greater degree of transparency in a public company, even in a Pinksheet where the filings are essentially voluntary, but we have been maintaining our filings on a quarterly basis. But, you know, that’s very important if you’re asking a laboratory for a quarter of a million dollars line of credit, that they can look up your financials and see, “Ok, maybe you’re not the biggest company out there, but can see that you are consistently making a profit and we see that you guys are honest and forthright and working hard, so we’ll give you that line of credit.” That might have not happened under a private company ownership, it certainly hadn’t happened to us before.
"So we have had a lot of great opportunities open for us in the last year. I would have to say vendor lines of credit have been the greatest blessing for the company because it doesn’t require the issuance of equity. And all of the shareholders out there, and Fred and I are the largest, we don’t want to dilute the company if there is any other way that we can build cash flow and credit facilities for the company without issuing equity. So the credit lines from vendors has been a very welcome and exciting tool for us to use."
Did they really mean Unique Monthly Visitors?
Probably not. They meant Unique Monthly Visits, I guess. Odd the way small companies are so careless with their press releases. They used the right term in the January PR for December (16.4) and in the February PR for January (17.6). They didn’t mention this metric in the last two monthly PRs. It has been pretty flat since last fall.