We shouldn't be real surprised by the recent drop. This is still lightly traded and can be easily manipulated by the market makers. It’s likely that some market makers sold short into the recent rally and now want to cover at a lower prices. They drop the bid and people get nervous and sell. Since this is OTC, some of the sells might not even be real. The MM make it look like this is going down and it shakes out the sellers. When it’s moving up everyone is real confident that this is going to be big. When it starts going down we start to wonder, and worry. We’ve all likely been here before. We’ve made a big profit and suddenly it starts to go away – so we get scared and sell. This is classic bulletin board. Keep in mind there are only 70,000 shares traded so far – which is nothing.

Something else to consider, the move up from $0.30 started right after uWink had the preview that Raw attended and this board started – my guess is this board had allot to do with the run. Well, the people that follow this board have bought all they want and we now need interest from somewhere else.

uWink needs new people to look at their stock. They need a positive write-up in the LA Times, or Wall Street Journal or another big, influential news source. Selling some franchises would also help. It would be great to get some of the brokerage firms in LA to visit. Offer them free drinks and a chance to meet Nolan and see what happens.

I’m holding – and patiently waiting for another move up.

uWink is validating their concept. From the sounds of the people who have visited, it's working very well. It's not perfect, yet, but the food is very good, and the available games are fun. The concept is very unique and there are alot of very tired franchises out there that may be looking for a while to juice things up a little. Like Rawnoc keeps saying, Nolan has done this before many times. I think he's going to do it again.

I think the next big driver in the stock will be sales of franchises. If we start seeing those we'll run again. And it's likely we'll see that soon. I've heard that people have been calling about franchises since the first stories were written last year. Now they can see the place, taste the food and play the games.

Chuck E' Cheese sold all the regional franchises in 6 months. This has the potential to be a much more profitable chain than CEC!

Tell your friends and your broker!

I'd like to see uWink have a few 4 pm happy hours for LA area brokers. Call them up and offer them a couple free beers and the oportunity to meet Nolan and get in on the ground floor of the next big thing. Free drinks means they will show up - seeing the restaurant should mean they will get on the phones and get their clients buying.

Sounds like they did have some sofware problems the other day, but heard it was working last night. I'll see if I can get more details and will post what I find out.

This just posted on the blog....

http://promomagazine.com/news/evian_stockholm_interactivedining_100306/

I'm not in the PR business - but Alissa Bushnell is, and has been for many, many years. Her last position was head of international PR for PeopleSoft. She left when they were bought out by Oracle. Also, if you dig around you'll find that Alissa managed to get stories about the restaurant into US Today, Newsweek, Wired, and a couple of other publications when it was still and idea in Nolan's head. She's very good - and I believe what she says.

I'll vouch for Netman. He is a "long" and has been in longer than most everyone on this board. Not sure if it's been two years, but has to be close.

I have personally spoken to at least 3 people who have tried uWink's food, and heard 2nd hand from a 4th. All have said it is excellent. One compared uWink's menu to Cheese Cake Factory - but more affordable. This person also called the restaurant "revolutionary."

I have also heard that the restaurant will feature uWink's 6 player "pong" game. I believe it was described in this article from last year's wired magazine.....

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.10/bushnell.html

Best of luck to all!

Just spoke with uWink. The soft opening starts today!!! Tonight, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday they'll be selling food!

Has not started yet - though you can look through the slides. Short video clip showing the mall, restaurant, signs and tables.

uWink using Apple Macs. Just heard that they are using Apple for their hardware - not Unix boxes like I previously posted.

I don't know who is supplying the guts, but I know the first terminals were custom manufactured - I believe in Southern California.

I also heard a while back that they were rewriting the Build-a-Bear and SNAP! software (which is Unix based) for the restaurant. I never heard anything different so I assume that is what they have done. That might eliminate Apple as the supplier.

I did see a picture of the terminals and they were pretty cool. Metal and wood - the sides looked like laminated wood (kinda like the ends of plywood). I doubt if I have access to the picture anymore but will post it if I do.

Alissa, uWink's PR person used to be head of PR for PeopleSoft and is very connected. I expect once the first restaurant opens and gets rolling we'll see lots of PR in big time publications. Loving the nice run.

Last week it seemed the buying didn't really start until after lunch (in the midwest) - which made me believe it was mostly coming out of California. Today it took off from the start.

Good luck to all.

Busted! Yes, I'm the same scandalls.

I've owned the stock for a couple of years - long before they started the restaurant. I don't know what they have planned for cross promotions with other mall tenants. I do like your idea.

I was not able to confirm that Nolan was the poster, but I did find out his nickname is Buck..........

Hope you didn't bet too much!

The $35,000 would be the franchise fee. I checked around the internet and found alot of franchises you can buy for $25,000, including Chipotle. McDonald's franchise fee is $45,000.

Franchise agreements also require payment of a certain percentage of gross revenue. Chipotle is 7%, 5% is common. There also may be an additional percentage for advertising.

I'm guessing buying the terminals, software and associated games will be a couple hundred thousand dollars - I don't have any basis for this, it might actually be higher. I don't know.

uWink will also have to work something out for income from the terminals. The franchises will likely want to share in that revenue too.

uWink's restaurant will be unique - revenue will come from food and liquor along with games, advertising, surveys, internet advertising (I hope), franchise sales and equipment sales.

It could be the real Nolan. The company is aware of this board - Alissa sent out the link, and many of the points that "Nolan" made were made by Nolan Bushnell at an investor presentation that I attended last summer. Additional details from the meeting (that I can remember) .....

1. Opening their first restaurant at Westfield Promenade is very good - it's a good location and they have established a strong relationship with Westfield - who owns many, many malls all over the world.

2. Not sure if anything was said about this being a software play.....

3. Whoever buys a franchise must also buy the terminals and the software, which uWink will sell. The hardware/software costs will be 5 or 10 times higher than the franchise fee - which are typically somewhere around $35,000.

4. Nolan talked about advertising, they have a targeted, captive audience. Also talked about getting revenue from surveys - I guess companies are willing to pay good money for a survey completed by their target market. uWink could offer a guest a piece of pie for completing a survey.

5. One option that was talked about was partnering with struggling chains to speed growth. There are allot of chains that might be interested in a second chance to make underperforming locations work.

6. Nolan really stressed social gaming, not the non-social gaming offered at Gameworks and other game chains. As a side note, uWink bid on Gameworks two summers ago when they were in bankruptcy. Sega won the bidding and now owns Gameworks. Their plan was to change Gameworks to more social gaming.

Nolan also talked about a multiplayer (6) PONG game that is supposed to be a blast to play. Asking someone to join your game, because you're a player short is an easy way to get to know someone.

Sounds like the poster is the real Nolan to me......

I'm guessing uWink will quietly open the restaurant around September 25 and hold the Grand Opening party around October 18th. They need to work the bugs out before they really get the word out about the restaurant. The Grand Opening should be a great time - who's going? I'm guessing you'll need an invitation.

Gotta like how the stock is acting. Been watching it the last few days and there are buyers out there who are sucking up all the stock that comes in. The seller have gotten as much as $0.58 too. The buyers are not taking a run at it either, which is also good - they are accumulating. I'd guess retail buyers ran it up to $0.74 the other week - sometime we get impatient because we're afraid we're going to miss the run.

Hopefully it will contintue to trade well and slowly move up through the opening.

You mentioned the review by the food snob, which was from an earlier post. The reviewer didn't like uWink's menu. Based on what they said it does not sound like they were looking at the real menu, they were looking at beta user's interface. The food items in beta UI are just placeholders so people can get an idea on how this will work, not the actual menu. I'm hearing they are still finalizing the food, which is why they are having all the tastings. I'm also hearing the food is excellent!

I called the company, that is what they told me.....

Have you been in the restaurant? What is that like? It sounds like a great location with some very popular restaurants near by. Thanks.

Rwanoc, thanks for all the great posts! I did a little checking and they will be serving blended drinks. Looking forward to your future posts.