We have to focus on getting the word out there! To attract new investors aware of this opportunity! We have to, yes, even ourselves...

Truly awesome hire!! Wow!! Senior and accomplished professional, very credible and focussed career in the majors! ANYbody with ANY doubts where we are headed should check out his Linkedin profile...a guy like that doesn't just switch jobs for fun because he enjoys a spoonful of vaporware, hehehe...

Honestly, dont think so, otherwise why go to the CS conference?

They have not been announcing everything even huge stuff like Atos. Granted, but I hope thats part of a well devised strategy thats going to evolve soon. And its not like we don't already have two large institutional backers (in case of Cyrus not only stock holder but actual financier), so thats very nice too!

Just a matter of a few months now until we get to where we are already headed. Right now its hanging in there and not trying to hope for big immediate gains, but huge long term gains. Then, we should be all fine.

Partly its simply that even less than a year back we were in development stage, where the capabilities of Glassware were still being developed into actual products, same with the team etc.

All I can say is while it might seem frustrating that the share price did not develop much over this year, lets not forget the HUGE run up until end of 2013!! At that time there was a hype compared to where the company actually stood at the time. From that hype we naturally consolidated and became grounded, literally with both feet on the ground. Thankfully we consolidated not much lower, as would normally have definitely normally been the case, BUT due to the company's huge progress this year, we consolidated back to where we we started the year (actually a good bit higher even) as the company looks way different now, in literally every sense, than it did at just a year back! So we replaced hype with actual progress over the past year. THAT is a HUGE step! So price might have stayed similar (still higher), but the risk for us decreased VERY significantly over the year!

Boogins, very well said and true! I could not agree more and have to also say that I haven't seen ANYthing like that yet either!

It is also the combination that makes this so confidence inspiring:

A) conversion of the recently issued convertible by Cyrus at $7.50
B) providing a revolving credit facility by Cyrus which may be increased
C) leaving the old conversion terms of the former convertibles issued to Overland as they were (they could have very, very easily been re-nogotiated by Cyrus in their position as a major shareholder of Overland at the time AND now financier of Sphere 3D as part of the merger). I have to say such would have been so normal, I actually expected it to happen!

Seriously awesome, as displays that both parties seem to have developed a very close relationship of confidence and trust. LOVE it!!

The key question now simply becomes how long will the naked shorts been given by the Canadian regulator to cover their naked shorts?

Is it possibly to find that out? Would it be unreasonable for us to ask management who surely are familiar with the process/ have a corporate lawyer?

Could anybody please try to find out or ask management? Getting a timeline independent of share price movement would sure be nice.

Many thanks in advance...been buying dilligently today!!

There was no capital raise! Remember faintly that Cyrus was a majority holder in Overland shares? Remember they held shares and convertibes in Overland? Remember also that they provided Sphere 3D during the merger with capital as well? Now, as a result of the merger they are naturally deemed an insider as their Overland stake was converted into Sphere 3D shares now, same as for all of us! Only they held so much Overland obviously as a majority owner that their conversion of Overland to Sphere 3D shares had to be filed...plus they had some Sphere 3D shares anyway, so now you see a total of their holding.

Easy, peasy. Come on guys...coffee time! :)

Forget for a moment that:

A) we will get rid of a favourite playground for the short's manipulation games
B) that we will have a combined volume with ONE ticker on ONE exchange
C) that we will no longer be associated with those mini tech reverse takeover resource stocks at the mini TSX, a market we grew out of and dont need to be associated with ANY longer

What is as important in my view is that

D) MANAGEMENT listened to us loyal shareholders, which they promised to do. They listened AND delivered on their promise. Now, that is a management I really like!!

Two thumbs up gents!!

Not really, as OVRL holders had plenty of chances to do so after the merger announcement...I think it was just as simple as: expectations having come down to planet earth and realising back again that we are yet small (otherwise we would have a billion(s) market cap already), but on the right track in many ways...the immediate expectations (as listed earlier today) had just shot up too high too quickly and with suddenly more sellers than buyers and a short playing us as well this week, this is what happened naturally...

Long term, the thesis and value proposition/ potential of Sphere stands...its just the unrealistic immediate timeline that got adjusted back to reality now...we all have to keep our day jobs for another few months...

The last transaction on ANY.V right at market end is interesting....yes every transaction has a buyer and a seller, so to see a buyer at this momentum stepping up that large is interesting

...as to institutions, we know Pinetree and Cyrus were both buyers at much higher levels even recently...so I would pin each much more likely on the buy side of this trade...a scared retail seller or a short perhaps...oh and note we did make the largest decreases at Nasdaq list and RSI levels are pointing to oversold conditions (again)...and possibly reverse momentum traders coming in...also if the mood and predictions of this board are ANY contrarian indicator...

then from here on out at the least life should get harder for the shorts' game...the weakest hands (or weakest allocations of holders) shaken off..

lets see... also in contrast to last time the guys who were on margin already went out of their margin facilities...and us all sure learned how quickly and strongly moods on this stock reverse...and we had the quiet doctrine, this time the shorts have to fear again announcements ANY day, as the news gates (re-)opened...

In accordance with the Indenture, Pinetree is required to cure or obtain a waiver for the default by January 2, 2015. Failure to obtain a waiver or to cure will constitute an event of default under the Indenture. The company anticipates repaying the additional indebtedness prior to the calendar year end.


Obviously they are betting against Pinetree being able to, but it is hardly imaginable that SI did it without a plan in mind and prepared...

Well lets be precise, the TICKER is not even $7 right now, but a professional financial institution (attack Pinetree if you like, but try to question Cyrus..) just invested in the last months and now converted at $7.50. Now decide for yourself which price is more indicative/important for you, the minute by minute ticker or the price stamp by the professional financial institution that just funded us??

Well, true partly also because simply we had gotten a bit ahead of ourselves here after Dell World and our quick rise pre-merger based un unrealistic expectations that this week we would have seen: Not only merger close, but also Dell partnership announcement (deeper than the one we already officially know of regatding Dell drive), possibly another one with another huge player like Ericsson, then higher than reported revenues (I was trying to caution and was still way too high), then immediate delist announcements and plans, then Credit Suisse coverage (they dont cover small firms like us), even buyout talks! Just check last weeks posts! It was crazy!! ;)

So no wonder, now we are back with both feet grounded on reality. It IS a very exciting reality but one where we are a small player with a huge potential! Not a get rich quick scheme, but get rich over the next months opportunity (and for the true longtermers, dare I say, even years)...if that is not good enough, what to say?

You are very right! The usual games when the short tries to exploit "air pockets" periods of low volume when he sees he can create some turbulence ;) unfortunately for him we have no fear of flying, picked up some more shares yesterday too!

Normally, with other stocks in the portfolio when the sp suddenly drops at market open or end, I check for bad news quickly, but with this baby we know it is just the short playing his silly games..;)

I really like that "get rich slowly scheme" description as you put it since:

a) by far most "get rich quickly schemes" end in poverty or prison!

b) this "slowly" refers seemingly to start of IT budgets coupled with operational capacity from the soon to start new year onwards, so "slowly" in this case is by any standards much far faster and less risky than most other opportunities we will encounter in our lifetimes

I am very happy to be here! Since they say "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" (picked up from movies, not my fellow inmates just to confirm) I prefer to take a little more time to get rich! Also, as Sphere investors we will be able to later walk around with our head held up high and not looking over our shoulders, ain't that worth stealing a few more Sphere 3D shares at these prices for the time being?

I am sure he didn't mean it personally but was just speaking generally.

Anyway, we are all on the same team here, and an international dream team it is!

Let's remember we rose from the low $6s/ high $5s beginning of November to a near 80% gain within less than a month, though I didnt sell a share as it was on very low volume and there was no tell exactly when we we would normalise (and I maintain it would - even in hindsight- have been stupid to risk missing out on a glorious long term run just for trying to time relatively minor and unpredictable short term gains that more often than not cause more pain than gain in small cap stocks) I have to say I did expect the normal pullback and consolidation phase after our quick run on relatively low volume eventually... surely many experienced investors here were too...

Just saying, if we weren't expecting a consolidation phase eventually then we would actually deserve the unflattering terms associated with "retail investors"... this is as normal of a stock development as it gets... no need for short theories or conspiracies...the sun rises and falls, even in Rome, even for Spiffy....and Rome wasn't build in a day...nor will Spiffy...

Sphere 3D reorganized its senior management suite and expanded its Board of Directors, to position itself for future growth:

- Eric Kelly, Chairman of Sphere 3D, remains Chairman and has also been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Sphere 3D.

- Peter Tassiopoulos, the former CEO of Sphere 3D, has been appointed Vice Chairman and President of Sphere 3D.

- Kurt Kalbfleisch, the former Chief Financial Officer of Overland, has been appointed as the CFO of Sphere 3D.

- Daniel (Dan) Bordessa has been appointed a director of Sphere 3D. Dan is currently a partner of Cyrus Capital Partners, L.P. and Cyrus Capital Partners Europe, L.P. Prior to joining Cyrus Capital, Mr. Bordessa was an Executive Director at Lazard where he was responsible for providing restructuring and mergers and acquisitions advice. While at Lazard, Mr. Bordessa advised on many of Europe's largest restructurings and was a frequent speaker at industry conferences and other events.

- Vivekanand (Vic) Mahadevan has been appointed a director of Sphere 3D. Vic has over 25 years of senior level strategic planning and marketing experience.

Nice, wise and concise summary TP! Very well put.

Many thanks. Yes, Overland is right now "stealing" revenues on our behalf, but with the merger being completed these days that predicament/confusion will go away when they report as a combined strong entity next quarter...

Turns out I was right on the money with the focus on merger, Overland, Dell World etc, would have liked to be less right about last quarter, but hey we are already two thirds into this quarter...

Feasible execution...you hit the nail right on the head! I wouldn't doubt for a second (otherwise I wouldn't be here) that we have lots of demand with unique and strong solutions in a giant and double digit growing sector! The only question, hence, becomes how much were they able to execute as a limited team at that time with all else that was going on...not a question of demand but simply humanly feasible execution...

On one other thing we can all also imediately agree (apart from the demand being there), it is great to finally see the merger being completed and to go back (now much stronger!) to the true business of sales!!

Agreed, but staying real is a crucial part of smart investing as well. Putting expectations into perspective!

For example: The previous reported quarter we had $1.7 mil. revenue and 70% revenue growth. Last quarter we had the merger to finalise PLUS Overland to put into shape for the future PLUS the further development of products, teams etc, literally on all fronts! So, realistically but optimistically assuming they managed despite all that to keep quarter on quarter revenue growth to 50-80% would mean a range of $2.5 mil.- $3 mil. quarterly revenue.

NOW that is applied logic and reasoning, and not (sorry with all due respect) just stating a totally random number out of thin air without reason or link to past and present.

Don't worry financial analysts are clever and educated enough to apply these too. Wall Street analysts may be ruthless, but not dumb! There is a rather BIG difference

Agreed sons. As I see it the only way for us to not be much wealthier as shareholders the next Thanksgivings would be to sell out too early... to get tempted to trade with our shares the usual ups and downs of the stock market, risking to be potentially left behind as Sphere develops and grows...

Tuesday, Wednesday...what difference does it make? I really think even after merger we need to all see and focus on where the big gains are in this quickly growing baby genius...in the long term!! Without the daily pressure on stock prices and developments measured in days...

If we wanted daily gratification and excitement we here would have followed, for example, those email spams of currency trading platforms that we get every day, advertising 80% gain in a day! Bla, bla, bla, where in fact by far most people loose 100% in as quickly as a day or two...just saying, this we know/knew is a different kind of investment, where the risk is far lower but the day to day super excitement is also much lower (not contradicting myself as some novice "currency traders" seem to find the chance of "loosing it all" every day oddly exciting;))

I think also the trading activity in Overland shares (everybody sure noticed the increased back and forth in Overland shares without really moving the price; even far exceeding the volume in ANY or ANY.V in the past two days) surely is related to brokers settling between accounts Overland shares ahead of the merger, triggered by the procedures related to the proxy.

Sometimes brokers don't immediately settle shares properly (normal in the stock market) as it should be principally speaking, but now in anticipation of the merger they have to "clean up their accounting/books" to ensure everything gets in order ahead of the conversion...

The inner workings between the brokers, exchanges and other intermediaries are sometimes not as clear cut as we maybe hope they should be. They have their own "Wall Street" inner workings way of getting things finally settled. Now is/was "spring cleaning" time in respect of Overland shares. A fortunately or unfortunately normal occurence especially ahead of a merger, with no direct effect on us as is between them...

Nice to see OVRL formally settled with BDT amicably, old news though.

That's fine, while the shorts will try to fear monger with that they should know (and most likely very well do by now) that the investors here are too skilled for these stupid games as they know that institutions like Pinetree either a) obtain a waiver or b) renegotiate the terms of their loans all the time. They are just legally obliged to formally file these notices, otherwise we would never here of most of them!

Anyway, by end of January Sheldon (and us) will sit on very nice gains from his Sphere 3D shares. he knows why he is buying... or who here thinks he doesn't?

Sorry to ask, will Canada (ANY.V) also close over US Thanksgiving? From the tmx website they seem to be remaining open for trade the entire week?

This confusion is certainly one we will also get rid of soon!

Fully agree on all points. Excellent post. eom

It actually came as expected, as the shorts were too quiet past weeks, an opponent won't just leave the boxing ring without giving it at least a last try...

Actually taking the boxing analogy further, it is the last round and we are ahead, we don't even have to knock him out, all we have to do is keep dancing in the ring and be saved by the proverbial bell!

That is exactly right, but guess who determines who has the better cards? We do! Well, depending on the share price at that time and its immediate expectations versus what Sphere will be ready to officially announce.

That's why we have to be very careful...the lower our expectations are on immediate official news and the more we see it as a sound LONG term investment, the less the short will be able to play us in the short term...

Please be cautious on your expectations! While Sphere is a great company, PLEASE do remember that it is a young company that has to YET grow into the major player we all want it to become!

We think we have a genius child on hand (like most parents btw) and while we read every movement of it as a confirmation of the same (confirmation bias), PLEASE among all the chatter of Dell, Chromebooks, buyout value speculation here REMEMBER the size of it yet! Comparatively speaking, genius as it may be, it is yet a child!

Its good to dream and be hopeful parents, but remember that we had revenue of $1.7 mil.last quarter, just swallowed a whale with all the associated digestion problems AND are yet to jump on a large scale into the commercialisation (sales) stage! EVERYBODY here knows where I stand, but I am just becoming really worried here as the probability that immediately after the merger, Sphere will announce a deal with Dell, Google and buyout talks is absolutely TOTALLY NIL. Please be realistic on your expectations and leave the window to reality a little bit open!

Don't let your expectations rise too high, as they are prone to turn into disappointment that will then happily be exploited by the shorts. You know they would happily take advantage of that!

It's just in regards to some of the exhibits, as it seems, allowing them after being SPECIFICALLY granted by the Commission, to not publicly disclose some items:

An Overview of Confidential Treatment Requests

An issuer that desires to keep confidential certain information that may otherwise end up in the public arena as a result of the Commission's comment and review process can sometimes do so by filing a request for confidential treatment. There are two types of confidential treatment requests available, those made pursuant to:
Rule 406 of the Securities Act or Rule 24b-2 of the Exchange Act, with respect to information required to be filed with the Commission, such as a material agreement filed as an exhibit to a registration statement or periodic report; This is the one they are referring to

or

Rule 83 of the Commission's Rules of Practice, with respect to information not required to be filed with the Commission, such as supplemental information provided in the context of the comment and review process.
Requests Made Pursuant to Securities Act Rule 406 or Exchange Act Rule 24b-2

A request for confidential treatment made pursuant to Rule 406 of the Securities Act or Rule 24b-2 of the Exchange Act must:

be sufficiently narrow, so as to only include information eligible for exemption under the FOIA;

specify the basis for the exemption (there are nine FOIA exemptions available, with "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential" being the most invoked);

contain legal and factual analyses substantiating the exemption;

contain an affirmative representation as to the confidentiality of the information; and

indicate the duration for which the exemption is being sought.

Come on...I mean let's keep it real, if they grew revenues by anywhere from 30% to 70%, I would declare them walking on clouds!

From all we know based on evidence we saw and experienced first hand, during the past quarter, they were busy reviewing Overland's entire structure and coming up with a plan to MAJORLY put into place a plan to reduce its expenses AND go through three iterations of the proxy and renegotiate the financial and legal terms (favourably for us) at which we are aquiring Overland, PLUS put a financing in place, PLUS develop a new technological solution with DELL for Dellworld????

We are investing in a cloud company, but please let's be grown ups and not rise to the cloud ourselves without keeping an eye out for the humanly possible...as far as I know, they haven't found a way to clone themselves yet so as to manage to be at three places at the same time...

That's exactly right! That's also exactly where the potential lies, holders aware of the value and buyers scrambling to find sellers. This is one stock hard to add to, or cover yourself out of!:

The holders who where convinced enough to hold from the highs to the lows and even added, while the "no news paradigm" meant no new investors to come in at low levels and happy to sell out quickly, have left the short with a very stubborn and loyal shareholder base...and exactly there lies the potential for the perfect storm...:)

Plus...every great US football team has a funny mascot, why shouldn't we have one too??

Agreed! Indeed, that strategy has been followed by many of the firms that emerged as the most successful technology firms of our time, from Google and its free internet search to Facebook.

Even hard- and software giant Apple that became the dividend and stock buyback giant it is today, was unprofitable for a long time (even after its IPO), establishing a loyal customer base hooked to its solutions and innovations! We all know how loyal (borderline fanatic) its customers became! Steve Jobs was even fired for his focus on solutions instead of profitability, before he was re-hired by the Board a few years later...

In fact, even while profitable, Apple also launched iTunes, an at that time revolutionary free music library management software. Only once people were hooked and loved the solution and got used to it as their music managemnt software, the money from the iTunes store started flowing...and flowing it did...

Just saying the innovation and initial landgrab never ends completely even for established technology companies, especially the most successful ones with a long term horizon! It is the unique way how the technology industry found its way around the chicken and egg problem, first get people hooked, show them the value of the solution, and then monetise it on a large scale...

No investment, no return...Sphere is a technology company, I hope they focus on one thing and one thing alone for some time: Adaptation

Last but not least: $19 billion valued company Whatsapp is another perfect example. Still has to get its first Dollar out of me, they won't be paying dividends anytime soon, but I bet their early shareholders (some surely asked the same question early on) are damn happy they focussed on adaptation! They now live in houses/ on islands next to other early investors of Google, Facebok, Apple and the like...all of the same clever mindset..

http://blog.bittorrent.com/2014/10/22/sync-speed-test-over-16-times-faster-than-the-cloud/

The answer is simply among other things (like security of a private cloud vs. a public one) far, far superior speed, which same as in formula one is everything in IT these days. Please see the following link, if that doesn't convince you of the potential then I dont know what will!

A fellow former frustrated dropbox, now enthusiatic bittorrent sync user...

Yes it is! Awesome, just look at his industry background and specialisation on virtualisation.

His LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonbramfitt

Well, Derek, another guy who has obviously no clue about the low value, run of the mill virtualisation technology firm he joined! Poor guy also just worked at other silly firms like IBM and Gartner in the past. Never heard of either. Oh, and he also seems one of the typical extrovert no clue characters hired to go out there by the usual pump and dump schemes. NOT!

Maybe he also needs our ever so kind resident mascot Derek "to help him see the light"

Last Friday was a very interesting day that showed the desperate and manipulative way the short tries to work and manipulate us!

Below a 'play by play' based on the stock price records, the latest filings of Sheldon as well as Scott's knowledgeable updates. We can literally see how the events unfolded on Friday:

1.) The short tried to aggressively dump shares on the low volume US side from the early afternoon in the hope to push the share price suddenly sharply lower and to ignite an artificial panic.

2.) Our man Sheldon immediately spotted this funny attempt and put a stop to the short's game by buying up what the short had suddenly put up for sale rather aggressively on the low volume US side. Sheldon drew a line in the sand, kept buying and practically put a floor to the price.

3.) Sheldon then comfortably in a convenient slot sold the shares he just had bought on the US side, most likely to a pre-agreed buyer, in a nice and round slot of 50'000 on the Canadian side. Quick and easy.

4.) The short as Scott pointed out became increasingly desperate, seeing that his strategy to send the price sharply lower and to create panic on the low volume US side was stopped before it even started (please kindly see Scott's update for the short's funny attempts to get out of his dilemma after that).

5.) The 'want to be clever' short was stopped from abusing the low volume on the US side to play his malicious and manipulative game at which point the price naturally recovered.

Sheldon, hats off and thank you for stepping up for us on the US side on Friday, you rescued us from the short's manipulative game! It is great to have you on our team and to send a clear message to the desperate manipulative short!

https://www.canadianinsider.com/node/7?destination=node/7%3Fmenu_tickersearch%3Dany