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.
As we all know, paper losses... are meaningless.
I knew there was a reason I liked you!
So what motivates Lugee? (Which, I assume, is at the heart of the question you asked.) The most likely answer is money.
Li didn’t build Eontec from the ground up, or build his substantial BMG network by not paying attention to what was happening around him. So why has our Chairman gone dark, regarding LQMT? Some have opined that Li doesn’t care about the LQMT shareholders, or has ulterior motives for having bought a controlling interest in LQMT. I have a different opinion. I think he’s been relatively silent because things at LQMT are proceeding as planned, and on a timeline that he (unlike us) is OK with.
Lugee’s portfolio in Lqmt has shrunk by $100 million since last November. Even Bobby Axelrod of Axe Capital wouldn’t be happy about a drop that large... and neither of them would be sitting back, doing nothing about it.
Stay long, Eagle. (If this goes down, I want company, )
I hope so, grasshopper. I hope so.
History of liquid metal alloys dates to 1960:
"The origins of such a material began in the 1960’s at Caltech"
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/202786/file-29094528-pdf/docs/a_history_of_liquidmetal_alloys_whitepaper.pdf
History of Liquidmetal Technologies as a company:
“LQMT started as a Caltech research project in the early 90’s that was eventually IPO’d on the NASDAQ in 2002.”
https://www.microcapdaily.com/a-close-look-at-liquidmetal-technologies-inc-otcbblqmt/19658/
Not sure what research you are referring to. Liquidmetal Research started way before 2008. The first bulk metallic glass was formed at Caltech in 1960. Liquidmetal Technologies started as a private company several years before it became a public company in 2002. It now seems ready (finally) to enter mainstream markets.
Keep in mind that I was basing my projections on an 8 hr day. When/if they get a large enough order, they can run those machines for two or more shifts a day. Even though they only have one hot and one cold crucible machine for production parts (and one of each type for R&D and prototypes), they still have enough potential capacity at LF to bring in several millions of dollars a year - enough to meet or exceed current break even levels.
When Lugee indicated that Eontec will do the manufacturing for LQMT’s large volume contracts, that’s exactly what he meant: LARGE VOLUMES. Volumes that will exceed the capability of the LF operation. So when the Eontec facility starts manufacturing for LQMT, we will see parts orders that run into the millions of parts a year, revenues for LQMT that will be in the 10s of millions of dollars a year, and a multi-dollar share price.
I should only live long enough to see that.
You know a lot more than I know. I always look forward to your posts.
Hope you feel better real soon.
Sorry about that. I'll be glad to help.
From Liquidmetal Design Guide 4.4 (the latest version):
"Cycle times for the Liquidmetal process range from two to three minutes (i.e., mold close to open)."
The Engel information you linked to states that "The cycle times are part-dependent and generally range between 3-5 minutes." However, it is old information as it refers to the Liquidmetal Design Guide 3.0, which is a few years old.
Yes, really. The cycle time is approximately 2 minutes to produce a single part. If they turn out only one part per cycle, they can make 30 parts an hour. And as you certainly already know, if the part is small, they can turn out up to 8 parts per cycle. I know you can do the math.
E.g., the “flags” they make as giveaways are produced 4 at a time... or 120 an hour.
It wouldn’t influence this story at all.
R. Salas, was place holder CEO until they found a more permanent replacement for John Kang. He then served as President (or was it CEO) of CIP. He was “dismissed” from the company for reasons I won’t go in to.
In any case, Lugee is a smart fellow. He must know the company’s history, and I trust he knows who it is that he does business with.
4,000 lb. A big shipment? No and Yes.
As an example, the Zyris Isolite 3 part weighs 62 gm, or approximately 2 ounces.
4,000 lb = 64,000 ounces. Divide that by 2 ounces per part = 32,000 parts.
How much gross revenue (not net profit) will 32k parts yield? I don’t know. I’m just guessing. Probably less than $1 million. So by itself, the 4,000 lb of alloy is not a big shipment.
However, as pointed out by another poster, suppose they get a large order - say for 150,000 parts per year - they could receive 4 additional separate shipments of 4,000 lb. each every 3 months over the next 12 months.
That would equate to 32k parts every 3 months, or approximately 60 parts an hour for 8 hr days and a 5 day work weeks. 60 parts per hour: hardly breaks a sweat for just a single Engel machine. And that could bring in gross revenues of what? $4 - $5 million a year??? Just guessing. Just stirring an empty tea cup. But anything even close to that amount of gross revenues would jack the share price high enough to make us all happy.
I’m just spinning wheels. We don’t have enough information to answer your question accurately. But as a stand alone shipment, 4,000 lb doesn’t seem like a big deal. Not to me, anyway.
OK, so you are suggesting that LQMT will pay for the shipment of 4 tons of alloy and have it stored in a small office in the garment district? Makes perfect sense to... who?
Watts, thank you for clarifying both points. I agree completely.
From the definition you provided:
the consignee is the entity who is financially responsible (the buyer) for the receipt of a shipment. Generally, but not always, the consignee is the same as the receiver.
Not sure what you are trying to communicate. As I understand it, all shipments were to be delivered to LQMT in Lake Forest. The discrepancy under discussion is in regard to the party that should be notified about the shipment: not where the shipment will be delivered to.
No. The Salas associated with LQMT is Ricardo A. Salas. No V in his name.
...everything concerning this stock holding is odd.
I'm asking if the name Salas as involved with LQMT is a coincidence or if there is some kind of connection
V. Salas is not the same person as R. Salas who was once part of the executive team at LQMT.
http://ir.liquidmetal.com/news-releases/news-release-details/liquidmetal-technologies-announces-hiring-president-and-ceo
Finally, a realistic prediction.
Reality sucks.
Very true. IIRC, at one of the past Q&A sessions at Eontec, Li said that Apple wanted to do an exclusive deal with Eontec, but Lugee said he would not do an exclusive deal with anyone. It’s another reason I admire Lugee.
And (prior to Lockheed) KEP weapons for the D.o.D.
Nondisclosure agreements could be the reason we hear so little about what is going on.
I don’t know the reason Hauck sold shares last year. (His selling really ticked me off.) But I do know why Chung sold. Without going into details, I will simply say he had to sell when he did, and point out that he made next to nothing on the sale. (He bought most of the shares he sold for just about the same price he paid, personally, out of pocket, to buy them a year and change earlier.) In addition, had Chung waited to sell those shares for just another month or so, he would have nearly doubled his ROI.
All we know for sure is that sales and revenues suck, and that our once chatty Chairman has lost his tongue. So we take out our frustrations by posting all sorts of unproven innuendos and conjectures, and largely baseless accusations. - At least I hope they are mostly baseless.
From the 10-Q "...the Company’s sales revenue continues to be recognized when products are shipped from its manufacturing facility."
not being called back is a badge of honor for the real old timers.
OK. I will take you at your word. So Li sells shares in Eontec to buy shares in LQMT, and then he pledges to turn over his personal shares of LQMT to Eontec. What am I missing here? What is your explanation? Was Li lying to his Eontec shareholders? Or has Li been lying and misrepresenting himself to his LQMT shareholders?
BTW, since I was originally suspicious of the Li buy in, I had a long chat with Steipp about the deal. For what it's worth, Steipp and the other LQMT Board members were convinced that Li was on the up and up. Were they fooled as well?
The Truth about Due Diligence:
With regard to investments, Due Diligence - so often lauded here as the key to making a good investment - is simply the process of taking reasonable steps to investigate a company prior to buying or selling its stock. It is research one does for themselves. It is no guarantee of truthfulness, accuracy, or the future performance of the stock. If Due Diligence was all it took to pick a winning stock, most of us would have become millionaires years ago.
Caveat Emptor: keep that in mind the next time someone pats themselves on their back for all the due diligence they've done regarding Eontec.
Li's pledge to transfer his shares to Eontec never made much sense to me.
Agree 100%
$8 million Invested to save $0.5 million a year? At that rate it takes 16 years to recoup the $8 M. During that time, the full $8M is tied up... money that could be used or invested elsewhere. There are better investments for Li to have made than buying an $8M commercial building, spending an additional $2 million in new machinery, and then spending an additional $8M a year in operational costs if all he wanted was the patents.
If all Li wanted was the patents, once he had them, all he needed to do was get out of the old rented building and rent a small 200 sq. ft. office with a single desk and a single employee to man the answering machine. A perfect job for Otis.
It makes no sense for Li to continue to spend $8M a year after he got hold of the patents, if that’s all he wanted, unless he expects a nice return on his investment.
If he bought LQMT just for the patents, he would not have spent $10 million of what is essentially his own money to buy a new building and new machinery. The patents were just as good when they were located in the old rented building that housed 1/2 the machinery.
A Liquidmetal pizza pan isn’t such a good idea. Liquidmetal has a low melting point. (A low phase transition point, actually). However, a Liquidmetal dim sum steaming pot would work just fine.
Right you are. There is a light at the end of this tunnel and it is not a train.
No surprises in the Q2. Even so, it still stings. Regardless, nothing substantive is likely to happen until the Q4 is filed next March. In spite of all the hype and hope, that’s the reality of it all, and I’m certainly not going to even consider throwing in the towel until after the Q4 report is issued.
Thanks, buddy. I’m relying on your optimism.
I find it difficult to keep track of all the moving parts and pieces in Lugee’s web. For simple minded people like me, a share price of $1 would be a whole lot easier to comprehend than thousands of words in dozens of posts.
So thank you for your reply. With a bit of luck I’ll still remember what you wrote by tomorrow.
Understood. Thanks. But what is the evidence that LQMT has started to utilize Eontec as its contract manufacturer for mass production? (To me, mass production at LF or LQMT contracting mass production in China is tantamount to the same thing.)
When that happens, we will all be in the chips. The key word is When. And, if memory serves me correctly, according to Eontec, they won’t have their own BMG manufacturing capabilities up to speed for another year or so. Or am I wrong? (I hope I’m wrong.)
Mass manufacturing of liquid metal (generic) parts is not the same thing as mass manufacturing of Liquidmetal parts in LF.