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Agree.
I am also not throwing in the towel on Deloitte. I find it interesting that in addition to all we discussed, at the same time, Deloitte just now added AIOPS.D to AWS. AIOPS.D built on CortexAI. Deloitte no longer marketing the name CortexAI as of early March, looks to me. But aiWare was integrated into CortexAI. And with AIOPS.D just being added to AWS marketplace, I wouldn't rule out Deloitte being a part of this "joint venture or investment" as you say.
Still say, AIOPS.D description sure similar to CDI/aiWare
Think a deal on aiWare could wipe out the debt, give them a good chunk of cash, ongoing expenses significantly reduced. Then Veritone would have a healthy balance sheet, and would be locked and loaded with HR solutions, M&E solutions, and Public sector solutions, all running on a platform that is in reputable hands.
Cost and revenue synergies.
Like you say, enough speculating, need the news.
aiWare is a division of Vertione. Used be called a vertical. Veritone a small company, now focusing on solutions like DMH, Investigate, Veritone Hire, etc.
Think Veritone is too small and too spread thin to be able to continue to support and develop aiWare.
Especially when you think about Veritone's comment that they are in final stages of enterprise level deals with the Fed. If aiWare is expanding and scaling with the federal government, does it really make sense for ongoing aiWare development to be under the roof of little Vertione.
In yesterdays interview, RS said, we are not selling AI, we are selling solutions. Again, aiWare taken off of AWS Marketplace, goes along with not selling AI, selling solutions.
Someone like AWS can take aiWare and put a lot more investment into it. And someone like AWS can really help Veritone scale the solutions that Veritone has built on aiWare. jmo.
Maybe downsizing staff as part of the integration?
Maybe they sell aiWare to AWS or give them an equity stake. AWS integrates it into Amazon Bedrock. And AWS helps Veritone GTM for Veritone applications?
This comment from the NAB brochure
check out Veritone’s workflow integrations with leading media partners like Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Yeah, when it comes to the NAB show, media and entertainment, it's all about DMH, which runs on aiWare.
We know that Veritone Investigate is DMH, running on aiWare.
From the AWS Marketplace
Built on enterprise-grade architecture powered by AWS Commercial
And aiWare taken off AWS marketplace. So in my opinion, the NAB brochure supports that theory that aiWare integrated with AWS.
Also know that the Sr. Director of Corporate Development starting March 2024 has additional duties of corporate development for AI Solutions Group and gtm with AWS.
And what about Veritone Hire which they don't talk about lately. That is running on aiWare as well.
One of the guys that had his picture and name on the aiWare.com site just posted
Hi everyone - I am looking for a new role and would appreciate your support. Thank you in advance for any connections, advice, or opportunities you can offer. #OpenToWork
I will admit, that is the biggest wrench in my optimistic views.
Well we know they have near term plans to vastly improve balance sheet. And we know that they have to do something. So we'll see what happens.
Integration Partners
Looking to get more from your existing tech investments, check out Veritone’s workflow integrations with leading media partners like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dalet and Grabyo, for seamless integration of advanced monetization capabilities to extract even more value from your existing content investments.
Also lists Adobe down below.
https://view.ceros.com/veritone-us/nab-2024/p/1
have no idea why they put that site up in August in the first place. Still not visible via Google.
Took off all the people and faces listed in about section of aiWARE.com
https://aiware.com/about
Yeah it's always good to have my optimism tempered.
I expect you to provide all the answers for me KVM. lol
HaHa IR is always useless for information, even for companies that have well established IR departments.
Can still have DMH available for other cloud platforms.
But according to RS and according to AWS, AWS and Veritone partnering on AWS M&E monetization solutions. So remains to be seen how that takes shape. We will see if there is some type of integration, or whether it will simply be AWS including Veritone DMH solution as one option for customers. jmo
But again, if going it alone, why take aiWare off AWS, and why don't they have DMH on AWS marketplace.
Another observation about AWS marketplace.
The only Veritone offering currently on AWS Marketplace is Veritone Investigate (DEMS)
We know that Veritone Investigate is basically Digital Media Hub for the private sector.
So why isn't Digital Media Hub on the AWS Marketplace?
Last year Amazon announced AWS for Media & Entertainment launched new Monetization solution area.
Here, you can see that AWS has mentioned Veritone as a partner for this initiative.
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/media/aws-for-media-entertainment-launches-new-monetization-solution-area/
When AWS posted this on Linkedin, I remember Ryan commented that Veritone was contributing to a number of these solutions, and he rattled off several areas where Veritone is contributing.
So when it comes to monetization, that is what Veritone has Digital Media Hub for. It is used for licensing or monetizing content. Well, if AWS is going big into monetization, and Veritone is contributing, then maybe makes sense that Veritone is not going to go ahead to head with AWS with Digital Media Hub. Maybe they have an agreement with AWS to integrate DMH into AWS monetization capabilities, and that is why we don't see DMH on AWS Marketplace.
Speculation I know. But I think we learn more about all of this at NAB, 2 weeks away.
- those marketing positions came out talking about partner marketing alongside AWS and AWS partners.
- when they came out with Veritone IDEMS, it only mentioned AWS.
- the senior director of corporate development updates profile about GTM with AWS
So several pieces of information have alluded to an expanding relationship with AWS.
So the obvious question that I have is why remove aiWare from AWS marketplace? And why no mention of aiWare in the description for "Investigate" on AWS marketplace? I have my hunches (speculation)
And then yesterday, Ryan alluded to being cloud agnostic more than once I believe, indicating that aiWare or underlying capabilities remain available for other clouds.
But Grabyo, like Dalet, is an AWS partner.
I think it's a good sign to see these companies partner with Veritone. Dalet had a relationship with Veritone a long time ago, but then appeared to sever the relationship and I think tried to provide their own AI solution. Encouraging that they appear to have thrown in the towel and came back to Veritone for DMH capabilities.
And based on the job descriptions showing GTM with AWS and AWS partners, could be a lot of AWS partners coming on board.
Think the annual revenue for Grabyo is under 20M
Right, I addressed that discrepancy in my last post. The fact is, at the time of the debt restructuring, Veritone needed cash, because they just spent 52M in precious cash on Broadbean. So in order to get more cash, they had to reach an agreement with the convertible notes holders. And in working with the notes holders, Veritone has been able to buy back notes at a considerable discount. That has to be pointed out if we are going to mention the higher interest rate on new debt, and the 3M warrants.
But still, if Veritone becomes a successful company and the stock exceeds 36 per share, then there will be the same number of shares outstanding as there would be if Veritone had not done the debt restructuring.
Look at Soundhound again. They have doubled their shares outstanding since they went public.
I know that handing out 3M in warrants at a 2.5 strike is a better deal for the lenders than the convertible notes being convertible at 36/sh.
But the fact is, the original convertible notes were convertible into 5.5M shares. Now, the remaining convertible notes are convertible into 2.5M shares, plus the 3M in warrants = 5.5M. So the debt restructuring did not increase the possible number of shares outstanding.
"If so rosy where the hell were any insider buys from C suite or BOD when stock was approaching a $1 a share except for the RS purchase. As a matter of fact have been no insider purchases for years."
Ryan purchased over 550k shares at around 7 bucks in August and September 2022. That's only a year and a half ago. And he bought 50K shares back in November 23 for 2 bucks.
When RS purchased the 550k shares, he knew Veritone was going to switch strategy. He knew CS was going to step down, and he knew they would be spending a year or more on a new aiWare roadmap.
But you are right, no insider had taken advantage of the opportunity to acquire the shares when they were under 2 bucks.
But also, never any sales. RS and CS sold some shares a couple years ago strictly for tax purposes and that's it. And if you think that no insiders were buying the shares under 2 bucks because the outlook was gloomy, then why are we not seeing any insider sales now that the stock is rocketing?
Meanwhile, Soundhound insiders can't sell their shares fast enough. Lots of sales at Bigbear.AI. C3 insiders perpetually selling their shares, never buying.
"Things got so bad just a few short months ago that they had to make a usury loan at 14.5% in exchange for their 1.75% debt and had to give away almost 10% of the company."
That debt restructuring was an agreement between Veritone and the convertible note holders. Yes, they exchanged low interest rate debt with high interest rate debt, but if that is to be pointed out, then it is only fair to point out that Veritone has been able to retire a large percentage of the convertible debt at a significant discount. So yeah they are paying a higher interest rate on the new debt, but bought back debt at a discount. Yeah they gave out 3M in warrants, around 7.5% of the company, but that was in exchange for the exact same number of convertible shares that were retired, so it's a wash.
We still don't even know what that strategic minority investment back in 2022 is all about, other than it concerns aiWare.
That's a good point about Chad Steelbergs new consulting terms. No longer developing, now just providing opinions and advising the CEO. So if some deal were to be centered around aiWARE or AI Solutions Group, the consulting arrangement is already established for whoever the CEO is.
aiWare can be applied to all industries. But Veritone focusing on ecosystem. Meanwhile, Veritone has partners that supposedly working on aiWare in industries outside of the ecosystem. If aiWare spun off into new entity, then better positioned to target all industries instead of just ecosystem. Also, such a deal could serve to provide the remaining Veritone both cost and revenue synergies, as they have alluded to for the second half of 2024. jmo
I reread that March 2024 linkedin profile update for the Sr. Director, Corporate & Business Development.
Expanded role to include corporate development responsibilities, business development (lead partner GTM with AWS), and GTM strategy development / execution for our AI Solutions Group
It was the GTM with AWS that initially got my attention, but didn't pay attention to the commas and the entire wording. He is saying that he has an expanded role to include corporate development responsibilities for AI Solutions Group. Maybe considering deals centering around AI Solutions Group.
Hey beni, welcome back. Have you heard anything on the underlying catalyst for the massive volume since the 13th.
Agree, huge potential with the Feds. Even moreso with HR solutions running on aiWare.
Interesting that he did not mention HR tech once today. And said "by far" what he is most excited about is public sector.
The whole problem with Veritone centering their entire business around aiWare was that it took 10 years for the market to finally get around to seeing the need for it. Corporate America was content to go with cheaper point solutions, and really did not embrace the concept of integrating all their business processes with AI until 2023.
So for 10 years, Veritone has basically been developing a platform that didn't have a whole lot of demand. Looks like 2024 the market is waking up to the concept of platforms that can accept more and more third party AI models and orchestrate them
Remains to be seen the extent to which companies like Amazon, Google, Snowflake etc can just develop their own versions of aiWare like capabilities rather than licensing from Veritone. But all the hints towards AWS are encouraging.
Veritone bought Broadbean last year which was a head scratcher at the time. They did this while Chad was apparently working on a new aiWare roadmap. I could see some arrangement where AWS helps Veritone scale its ecosystem verticals, while Veritone helps Amazon enhance Bedrock.
Today, Ryan emphasized the cloud agnositic nature of aiWare. So leads me to believe that Veritone has not sold its soul to AWS. Could be other business relationships being established. We know Linkedin, owned by Microsoft now calls Veritone Hire a preferred partner.
I just did not expect that we would be three months into the year and still not know the aiWare roadmap, aiWare developments over the year, or much about the fully integrated Veritone Hire. Still think we might learn something from the 10k. And still think there might be other underlying reasons for delaying it. Who knows.
Just my opinion, but I don't think Veritone's intention is to have aiWare compete with Bedrock.
"Veritone and its partnership with AWS offers customers hundreds of AI engines with capabilities including: transcription, translation, object recognition, OCR, face recognition, text sentiment, geolocation, visual moderation, audio fingerprinting, scene detection, speaker separation, orchestration, text to speech and more.
"
" Built on enterprise-grade architecture powered by AWS Commercial that is CJIS compliant"
In fact, they haven't been marketing aiWare as a standalone platform product since probably 2021 or early 2022.
And can even go way back to my conversation with Brian Alger when he said think of aiWare as a capability instead of a product.
While we have no idea if Amazon is or will license aiWare capabilities, it seems pretty clear that they are gearing up for a go to market partnership with AWS and AWS partners. aiWare capabilities might be just one aspect of a broader partnership involving go to market arrangements with AWS.
I don't know, but I don't consider aiWare to be a standalone platform product competing with the likes of Amazon Bedrock, Google VertiexAI, Snowflake Cortex, etc.
I think all of these other platforms are potential partners or customers where aiWare capabilities can be integrated into their platforms. jmo
Bedrock mention begins at 6:12
Here is the interview
Best thing about it is the fact that Ryan did it. They have been ignoring the financial community since 2022.
Not sure how I feel about it kinda tells me AWS may be trying to replace them with their own solution.
Certainly can be interpreted that way. Also a possibility we see a license on underlying aiWare capabilities.
I think it's possible see some sort of collaborative PR with AWS as we approach NAB. Maybe something revealed then. We know according to Ryan, Veritone involved with AWS M&E monitization initiateves, that AWS will be presenting at NAB. And AWS mentions Veritone as a partner in these initiatives.
Still find it interesting that they remain hush on any PR concerning Veritone Hire. No website. No dedicated web page.
Was surprised, don't think he mentioned hiring solutions once.
He made the comment, something like aiWare is the original Amazon Bedrock.
and soon will be available across the majority of Veritone’s commercial and public sector applications.
Wonder why they remain quiet on the conversational AI aspect of Veritone Hire.
Yeah, and back to listing ecosystem business, "Serving customers in the talent acquisition, media, entertainment and public sector industries, "
Still holding out on mentioning gtm with AWS. Think we will see a NAB show PR coming up. Last year their Nab PR was on April 11.
Surprised they mentioned aiWare.
"Ask Veri is an integrated solution on Veritone’s aiWARE platform"
yeah, would be great.
I can't even remember the last time Ryan had an interview where the venue was investor related.
Looks like he is going on the show tomorrow to talk about Veritone, AI and the industry. Maybe they will have a PR issued tomorrow AM.
Yeah, its going to be a fight to close above 5.
Where is that 10k? Hard to believe the delay is entirely due to Broadbean.