Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
We've all "heard it before" as so many people point out. But we are now hearing from a team with a track record of doing what they say. This is no longer a lip service management team. Maybe a quick history lesson is due, especially for newcomers to this message board.
The old team had great vision and honestly, they made a tough call when they dropped Amadeus and switched over to SPORT. Amadeus may have been too similar to da Vinci to meet patent scrutiny in court. Option 2, the Senhance design (or something similar to circumvent ISRG's patents) - one big arm per gigantic pod, turning an OR into an obstacle course. Option 3, SPORT - minimalist design, minimal patient intrusion, minimal floor space required, great mobility and quick turn-around time for cases, minimal scarring, half the per-case costs of ISRG, and able to build and sell machines at a better price point than any competitor. As much as we seem to love to bash the old regime, there was a bit of visionary thinking in that decision, and that is why we aren't TRXC - floundering on the market today. The shortcomings of the old team were that they didn't bring on people who could get a design across the finish line.
So the first "Heard it before" was due to a necessary major design philosophy overhaul. The second set of "heard it befores" were because the old team couldn't keep it on the schedule; they never did anything like it before so they were treading new ground and made promises they couldn't keep. From here on in, "heard it before" means "heard it from someone else in the past who is no longer relevant." What you hear today is a new message about new schedule from a new team, and 6 months into a 2.5 year schedule, they are still on schedule. And that means we are 20% of the way to the finish line with this team.
Watch these guys deliver. They've done it before. It's all they have ever done - deliver successful projects to the medical device marketplace.
Unrelated note: I agree with TheMint on the 24 month charts. If anything, they are counter-productive at this juncture.
And a good morning to you as well! I'm ready! Just hoping the monster is working WITH us today!
You are partly right. You are correct in that we disagree with much of what you have said, and that trend continues. That "free pass" you mentioned must be referring to the letter writing campaign we initiated last year, which contributed to the near complete eventual turnover of upper management. The RS staring us in the face is never good when it's just a last minute cash grab by a company with no future, but every new member of management has a track record of successful business accomplishments, and the now award-winning patent portfolio adds to the idea that this is to be one of many many RS success stories, the ones which you seem to be ignoring.
That is what us people see, and hopefully that helps remove any "intrigue" from this message board. Therefore, you are now free to go back home to your Nancy Drew novel collection to fill your burgeoning need for more "intrigue".
Scottrade has been showing 187.98M all along. I don't think any of the fundraising results are being published yet.
I got my cost average down to .483 first thing this morning (from just over .54).
8000 reads in the past 24 hours, and a lot of those hours were Sunday and overnight. I assume a "read" means one person looking at one post, but 8000 times should mean a few potential new investors are coming up to speed on Titan. All of whom are welcomed to keep reading, maybe post, and certainly invest!
I just put in my order for another 50K shares. I would love to see the AGM video beforehand but I fear this buy opportunity may be gone before the video is released! Between the IP news and the imminent announcements on initial design freeze and pre-clinical sites, I expect a small pop today for the IP news and bigger pops on each of the next announcements, as each will provide further evidence of progression and best possible adherence to the schedule.
As a side note, I love the overall positive tone and optimism here for a change! Granted, we have good reasons for it, too!
We closed Thursday at .15 and opened at .1491 yesterday. The postings yesterday were mostly positive (about 777 of them were not, but the rest mostly were). We closed at .165, up 10%. That could very easily be from any number of things, and I am not going to claim that the positive tone on this board caused a 10% increase in one day. But apparently the positive tone here didn't make the PPS crumble further, which was a distinct possibility the day following the AGM.
I would say the experiment did not fail on its first day, and therefore merits continuation. Anyone here who didn't like yesterday's PPS results probably doesn't belong on this message board.
Scottrade shows the late-day buys at .165 were pretty big; graph looks like over 100K shares!
Check the timeline in their SEDAR filing. All the info is there. So far this management team has hit their milestones on schedule, with two more big ones due at the end of this month. We have advanced notice that one MAY be in jeopardy because of legal team wranglings, but I'm not too concerned if that one slips by a couple weeks. It is not on the critical path for getting this to market so there is no long term effect if this one milestone meets a minor delay. And they might just pull it off on schedule anyway.
People who continue to apply the prior management team's performance to the current situation will be grossly misled and/or grossly misleading to others.
The initial design freeze is intended to be as close as possible to final production design, but a competent organization has to acknowledge that it might not be perfect, or more requirements may arise. Look at how screwed TRXC was when they hoped for their FDA approval before the Human Factors guidelines were released - it wasn't approved in time so they were on the hook for so much revision that they decided at that time to scrap that project instead of redesign. Those are the same new FDA requirements (as of April 2016) that also kept Ximedica so busy with SPORT this past year. Initial design freeze means they have something ready for testing, and we are on our way forward!
As far as anything that crops up in the meantime, it doesn't necessarily invalidate all the testing done to date. If changes are required, it is acceptable to show the FDA the scope and impact of the changes, and perform regression testing on those changes without having to fully re-validate the entire system.
TO, the update is GREATLY appreciated!
Since McNally was talking about two milestones at once and we know the three sites are in negotiations right now, the initial design freeze must also be Q2 2017.
In the normal flow of things for a medical device of this nature, it means this is the design they will bring into pre-clinical trials, with at most some very minor mods but hopefully none. Early trials will mostly validate the hardware while the software development continues. A complex system like this will need to show safety and efficacy for approval, and once the hardware design is pinned down, minor tweaks are easy.
It is initial design freeze because they are heading into about a year of much more intense (simulated)real-world utilization, from which they will be seeking feedback for more possible improvements. It is actually a fairly major milestone. Executing the plan!
I am looking forward to the AGM video.
How to convince the marketplace we are on a path to success...
As DRG suggests and I have always encouraged, a trial run of a negativity ban. I don't know if one week would be sufficient but I'll take whatever I can get! Maybe we could agree that if in one week we have made some progress on PPS despite the trend, we can extend the positive outlook for a month. A week might be a little short to show a real impact.
Truthfully, we are looking at a potentially rough month with an imminent split. If we can remain positive on this board regardless of upcoming events (e.g. look at the potential upsides of the split whenever it is discussed), and probably more importantly, stop dwelling on the prior management team's history, we just might make an impact.
With the AGM video due out, there should rightfully be some give and take on interpretations of management statements, and this is a big annual event for any company. I would suggest we pick a day next week to start the "ban" because we really just don't know if there are any bombshells in the AGM presentation which merit open discussion. We will need a few days to decipher the AGM, and we can't do that with our hands tied behind our back!
Also, spin means everything. Did I get a flat tire, or was I gifted with the opportunity to get some new rubber for my car? There are success stories in the real world for reverse splits working out well. Those would be better examples to discuss than some which were truly a last ditch cash-grab by less scrupulous organizations.
Some things with negative connotations don't necessarily merit any mention at all.
If we could really make a fair run at this experiment, it could be fun and groundbreaking as well. Hell, someone wrote an article in an investment blog last year about our letter writing campaign. If this works, it could really raise some eyebrows! (Ok, I can understand this being a good place in time for someone to call me delusional!)
Trust me, I share your concerns that something big is lurking on the dark side, but I just don't see what it could possibly be, and all indications I have seen are that this really has to end up being a winner. And I have shared my concern that we have been our own worst enemies. That could also explain why management hasn't been very forthcoming with detailed information; they might see us as the bad guys, and why would they want to share anything they don't have to with people they view as the enemy?
To me, the negativity you have shared (we all have shared some at various points) is indicative of your frustration level, and I'm not far behind. But everything that is explainable points to prior management missteps. The new management team appears to have a plan and appears to be executing it well. And maybe Randall has an ace or two up his sleeve that he also refuses to show (Lord knows we haven't done anything to endear ourselves to him personally!).
And please don't take anything I say personally; it is not intended that way. I apologize if it comes out more strongly that I intended. And WHEN we do finally get to Vegas, I'll buy your first drink!
So 28% were by default in support of Randall without votes cast. Of the balance, about 30% were for, and 42% against. He would have lost in a democratic election. Of shares that were voted, 58% wanted Randall ousted. That actually further proves my point, barring anyone digging up some public dirt against Randall.
That is still nothing to explain Randall's results.
And I believe (please someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the 42% are people who voted. People who didn't bother to vote are automatically tallied as "For" votes, are they not? It would be interesting to see how many shares were not voted at all and fell into the default.
Please feel free to type it out, delve into the psychoanalysis you have performed based on a few brief passages of my thoughts. And then, more importantly, tell me how on God's greenish earth Randall could get 42% of voting shares against him when everyone else received 98% support. You obviously have an alternate viable explanation for that.
I have repeatedly said that I think this message board is influential in the Titan investment community as a source of information which more people read than any of us will ever realize. That theory seems to get shot down frequently by those who think otherwise.
"Compared to everybody else at 98% yay's, Randell squeaked by with 57% yay's and 42% nay's"
Please, any of you doubters... or anyone at all... submit any link from anywhere around the internet in which there is any sort of bad press for Randall. Anything at all negative that wasn't posted here is welcomed.
Once we fail at that, the ONLY logical, viable conclusion is that this message board had enough reach and influence to sway 42% of shareholder power to vote against Randall. That 42% is shares, not just shareholder headcount, and includes a lot of us relatively small players. And despite our opinions expressed here about Randall's performance, not everyone who reads this message board would have voted against him.
I think it is time that all of us contributors accept that we do in fact have a real influence on the investor population. And the more we bash the stock, the company, and the management team, the worse it is going to perform. Crashing the PPS into its current state isn't a self-fulfilling prophesy for anyone here if our own influence helped drag it down here. It was cause and effect. And it will continue to be so until all of us quit bitching and look at (and express here)the positives about the technology, the product, and the management team which so far has been meeting milestones (I haven't yet seen anything from the AGM other than what is posted on this board).
Unless someone can dig up some seriously bad press about Randall, the Nay votes have to have been from readers of this message board. And from last month's poll, we (with some family and friends reported) are only 6% of the shares. To get to 42% against (to be fair, 2% were voting against everyone so only the remaining 40% of Nay votes can be attributed to this message board), and if no other bad press is out there for Randall, that is absolute proof of our influence, both good and bad. That is MY smoking gun.
Every time you want to post something negative here, look at the PPS first and think about which way, up or down, you want to drive it.
Is it ironic that the bottom of Titan's web page Investors tab says "Would you like to receive communications from Titan Medical Inc?"
Or is it just a big tease like from the aforementioned girlfriend?
Has the AGM started? One would think that live streaming such an event would be the norm these days!
I feel as though there should be some applicable quote from the bible regarding how we should be rewarding for our faith!
I had the opposite problem with ISRG. I bought a pile of it just before they really ran ($11.65/share!) and it would climb, then plateau for a while. A few of those plateaus ($550ish and $750ish) had me thinking I had a good run, so I'll sell off a portion. Each time I sold some, it shot up again right after. I hope to have the same problem with TITXF in a few years!
That's why I'm thinking go half of the plan, and if it falls more after AGM, grab the other half even lower. If it rises after AGM, I'd be perfectly happy with having scooped more at today's prices.
I'm hoping they can announce something else first at the AGM to boost PPS a little. Even a re-hash of recent accomplishments and how they continue to meet the published timeline might inspire a bit more confidence in the investment community. I've never been one to say that PPS can't go any lower, but I'll gladly point out that it is illogical for it to be this low based on the value of the IP alone. People who have seen the product want it.
I am tempted to take advantage of today's pricing, maybe cash out another stock I'm less enthusiastic about and get my cost average down further while also building better leverage against the imminent dilution. I could buy half of my target quantity this morning, and hold the balance in cash to see what kind of fallout, good or bad, comes from the AGM.
I don't consider it to be a puff piece. I think it serves as a good "heads up" to the marketplace.
Given the prior management team's history, it is understandable that he isn't publicizing a timeline in this type of article. We already have the timeline in that big table in the latest SEDAR filing, with the types of details more applicable to us as investors.
I think we're all a little jaded by the current PPS and worse, by the amount of dilution required at this price point to keep things rolling.
Is there NOBODY here going to the AGM?
Maybe nothing new, but we need this type of exposure as often as possible! He stays on point about being priced for smaller hospitals and surgi-centers; I wish he expanded that conversation slightly to offer the same economic benefits to larger facilities as well. I would hate for a big hospital to think this system isn't intended for them. The enhanced mobility of the system should actually be beneficial for larger hospitals in that they can more easily move it from room to room and get more utilization from each system.
Nice scoop, and as always, IITF, thanks for sharing!
https://www.surgicalproductsmag.com/article/2017/06/titan-medical-looks-join-robotic-assisted-surgery-field
Scottrade shows these headlines from last month (May 17) under the Globus Medical (GMED) listing:
Globus Medical: Got Letter From FDA Saying It Hadn't Addressed Questions on ExcelsiusGPS Robotic Guidance
Globus Medical: No Longer Anticipates 2Q FDA Clearance
Is this the system that just got a CE mark in January? It doesn't look like competition for Titan/Isrg etc., it looks more like a device to navigate and install Globus implantables. Can you provide more detail on their functionality?
Definitely still here, and definitely was getting a bit disgusted by the direction the message board was going; when it turns to personal insults I prefer to distance myself a little from the action. And I appreciate your kind words. I had intended to sit back when things were getting particularly ugly on here, but with the announcements of last week and the AGM coming this week, I suspect you'll still hear a little bit from me now and again. For example, it seemed as though a lot of folks were quite upset about the IP situation from last week, but I was reading and distinguishing past tense statements from current or forward-looking statements, and I hope I was able to help ease some fears for at least a couple people. People were obviously in panic, and I wasn't far from panic either until I followed the posted links and read ST's re-post carefully.
This message board is still a first-line source of information thanks to the many contributors who dig for info and share generously, which really is a majority. I haven't sold, and I would probably buy more if I could. I see this as still having much better odds than roulette for a big payoff, but patience is everything. When the sentiment here turns south I do rely on whatever factual info I can find, and I still think the value is mostly in the patents. Whether that means someone will buy it out for the patents or we get to the market in some form, the value is still there. Even TRXC has twice our market cap and I don't see anything of value in their product lineup.
You got me wondering the same thing, because I didn't think I was ever all that pro-RS. I checked my old posts pertaining to it and all I came up with is these:
"Okay, I was never a big fan of a reverse split. Always seemed to be like it drives the price up, giving it more room to fall back down. Almost like it could have some natural tendency to return to $.30 regardless of number of shares or Market cap or actual value. But in this case, uplisting seems like the natural path, and maybe sooner is better than later in terms of fundraising capability."
"I still have some trepidation about the potential downsides for the RS but I also see the upsides, and I figure McNally and crew know better than I ever will. I would most likely vote yes on the RS if the vote were to happen today."
I guess between these postings, it is safe to surmise that never really pro-RS, but only to the extent that I still have confidence in the new management team and their plan to try to uplist. I know I have stated in the past that I believed the amount of dilution will not likely be substantially impacted by an RS or not. The amount of dilution required for this offering is at least around 20% or so of the number of outstanding shares, so a price drop of 20% keeps market cap around the same. From .25 to .20 is a 20% drop. If they max out the offering, it's twice the number of shares, and therefore, .15 a share maintains our prior market cap. Looks like crap on paper, especially for us longs, but bills need to get paid and this is how a development company gets money.
As for people following me off a cliff, I also recall pointing out that I am neither an investment professional nor a leader. I have typically considered myself more of a "do-er" than either a leader or a follower. And I don't think we went off a cliff in any case. They are just keeping the doors open and following the plan. (I'd love to know more about the plan though...)
Okay, the sidelines are a bit boring when real happenings are afoot. And I'm not sure how much of the current panic is justified.
Re-read that post without casting it all into the present, which is easy to do with a more skeptical mindset... Look for past tense wording on some of this and apply past tense to the past. Some of this might be historical information to put the rest of the message into perspective.
"requires a higher-performance product than originally envisioned by the Company at its inception" When was Titan's inception? Is this possibly just describing why they bagged Amadeus and moved on to SPORT?
"This has required the re-assessment of user requirements in consideration of competitors and in turn, driven further design changes" Are these new changes starting today, or is "has required" not a past tense phrase?
"The Company has experienced technical challenges" And met them with the current design?
"The Company continues to study the evolving competitive surgical products patent landscape, in order to ensure that its product would not likely infringe the intellectual property of others." Big IP review a couple months ago yielded positive results. They have to keep up with what a dozen other companies are doing in IP land at the same time.
We knew some fundraising was coming. Everyone pissing on the company for so long hasn't helped PSS, hence more dilution than necessary (I know that may be disputed, however...). Now this "the sky is falling" attitude is creating a nice buy opportunity while also ensuring MAXIMUM dilution. Simple ballpark math, yesterday's .25 share price for an $8.X Million raise is close to 40M additional shares, or about 20% dilution, so effective share price should have fallen about 20% on today's news. Simple math, and it was very predictable knowing they were out of money in a few weeks. The R/S isn't an overnight process, and uplisting takes longer, so we logically knew there had to be another fundraising coming.
Gotta get us some Brits on this message board who know how to "Stay Calm and Invest!"
In any event, we should be individually bombarding the investor contact inbox with questions asking for clarification at the AGM. If the Chicken Little interpretation is true, we need to know. But they need to know that we demand answers when something like this happens, and their explanation is less clear than necessary.
Hey Tuition,
That's what I thought too, but I was corrected yesterday. Basically we've been told that nobody looks at this message board, nobody cares what we say, and the PPS fell several percent yesterday because of the R/S - which was announced how long ago? We've had up days and down days since then, but apparently a piece of news targets just a few certain days in the future to have an impact. Someone is even betting that on three specific days after the R/S, the stock will have a down day each of those days (it might not be what he meant but that is how it was written).
If you google Titan Medical Stock, you get dozens of stock price listings, and you get this message board. And maybe a handful of outdated articles. News pertaining to Titan is typically caught and posted by one of us within hours at most. The idea that the only source of info which is updated daily having no bearing on investor sentiment seems ludicrous to me, but apparently that's the way it is.
I'm as frustrated as anyone with the direction this has gone as an investment, and frankly, I don't need the additional negativity in my life which this message board provides. So those of you who do nothing but speculative bitching, go for it. Be the intellectual who knows your contributions here are meaningless, but continue to contribute nonetheless. I bet that even makes sense to you. Lower PPS means more dilution for all, which apparently is a good thing somehow. See if you can drag us into the teens and then blame management for having a solid plan and executing it.
I'll check in occasionally to see what's happening, but for the most part, I just don't need this additional crap in my life. It's a shame, too, because there are so many good, reasonable people here as well, but I think I'll sit a little closer to the sidelines for a while.
Best to all...
Maybe we opened down today because the only active potential source of information, this message board, has been focused almost exclusively on the topic of bankruptcy as if it has something to do with Titan. Next, let's talk about how an asteroid is going to crash into Toronto and wipe out Titan's headquarters and all their intellectual property. That would be devastating to Titan shareholders too, so as unlikely as it is, we should discuss that at length too. Maybe get price into the teens!
If the next milestone is to select sites for pre-clinical studies, maybe this ties into the (perceived) debacle over Dr. Patel's involvement, and his SAB membership will be confirmed with the announcement of this milestone.
Just found the one I was looking for! It was part of the PR announcing finalization of use requirements ahead of schedule (March 23).
The remaining 2017 milestones are as follow:
Select and confirm two US and one European strategic facilities for pre-clinical studies
Test and evaluate performance of subsystems of existing engineering verification (EV) units
Complete initial formative human factors studies that follow previous heuristic studies
Initiate design changes based on subsystem performance and human factors evaluation
Implement design changes and retest system and subsystems
Update Design History File and documentation for relevant modules of the Company’s Quality Management System (“QMS”)
Complete initial requirements and architecture for simulation software and training program design
Complete and report on pre-clinical studies at strategic facilities in US and Europe
Confirm FDA and CE Mark pathways in coordination with regulatory authorities
2018 milestones:
Complete software development, system design and update Design History File for regulatory filings
Complete summative human factors evaluation
Complete simulation software development and training program design
Complete and document pre-clinical studies for FDA submittal
Prepare and submit 510(k) application to FDA and prepare Technical File for CE Mark and submit to European Notified Body
Publish white papers on pre-clinical studies
I too would love to see more detail in the timeline; the most recent one (May 1) I can find is near the end of the Corporate Presentation, and only breaks things down by year:
Plan for Commercialization
2017 Human factors, design, development and pre-clinical studies
2018 Development, tooling, pre-clinical studies, regulatory
submission preparation and application
2019 Projected regulatory clearance and approvals,
commercialization in US and Europe with limited release
Part of the May 17 press release is this:
Mr. McNally continued, “Based on our progress and the commitment of our employees and subcontractors, we remain on track to deliver the next of our stated milestones during the second quarter of the year." Well, that's this month... I wonder which milestone that is! Hopefully another nice announcement is coming in the next couple weeks.
I'm curious... Mr. McNally came on board January 1. He/They put a plan together, optimized the team, met the Human factors milestone on schedule, got a couple more patents approved, got the money needed to keep running the last time the funding went dry... What has this team missed so far? Sure, I'd like to see the system being sold but that's a bit premature. I'd like to see some non-dilutive form of funding but that wasn't a stated milestone so they haven't missed something (I personally think a CFO should be a bit more proactive and not cut things so close on funding). I'd certainly like a bit more communication from them, but they have no stated obligation to provide anything more than quarterly filings and annual AGM, so again, not a miss on their part. Folks here are getting angry, grumpy, bitter, and generally pissed off because of our situation, but this team so far has done what they said they would do and did it on schedule. Why are so many people griping about the management team? They are doing their job. If we have another shutdown, it's a fair gripe, but if the doors stay open and making progress and they keep hitting their milestones, they are doing their job. The level of imminent dilution we face will be more due to whoever keeps the PPS suppressed; management certainly hasn't been trying to keep the price down. It is reasonable to bitch about the market makers; they have put us in this position and are inflicting more pain on us when the next offering comes around.
Management took a sinking ship, fixed it, put it back on course, and on they sail. Let them do their jobs.
I was told ISRG's single port has the two crossing over and curving around such that the surgeon's left hand is controlling the right actuator, and vice versa. Will be one hell of a learning curve if that is true. And as a patient, I would be rather uncomfortable just knowing about it.
I think they are forbidden from marketing a system to a buyer before it is FDA approved. They can let the general public know what they are doing but there are a bunch of things they can't say, can't claim that it will do any specific thing, etc. until the FDA agrees it can do so safely.
If they believe Titan's patent portfolio is blocking ISRG's single port system, why doesn't ISRG buy Titan like they did to Computer Motion 15 years (or so) ago? I'd be good with a couple billion, about $10.50 per share. ISRG is sitting on a pile of cash, even burning some to buy back $2B of their own shares on the open market. Another $2B for Titan won't kill their warchest and will easily satisfy most Titan shareholders. I know I would go away happy at $10 a share! And then no more threat in ISRG's single port market.
I will send in those questions (post 54885, I think). I can add the list of shareholders/shares held if people think it is worthwhile to add and they agree with the questions to be asked. The initial purpose of the list was just to gauge the level of ownership we collectively hold and if it is significant enough to at least get their attention and respect, if not a modicum of influence. We came in with over 50 respondents from this board, owning nearly 6 percent of the outstanding shares. I would think that should get their attention.
Please (everyone!) let me know if you think I should attach the list with the questions for AGM submission, and if you want your iHub ID removed from the list before I send the questions - there's no personal identifying information there but if you prefer to be disassociated with the questions, I'll remove you.
Awesome! A new (European) patent issued, covering our core technological advantage in the marketplace. But it's Titan, so the current Bid price is 5.9% lower than our closing price, despite what would be great news for any other organization. I don't get it...
BTW... Nice find, and thanks for posting ST!