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Auditor in previous life. Normally I wouldn't touch a stock like this with a ten foot pole but occasionally I buy a lottery ticket (or two).
Chinalot deal: Just reread the press release from October and it stated EGC had signed a 'definitive agreement' with ChinaLot with trials to be conducted over several months.
I believe the timing of the Bally's deal is significant. Why would EGC be interested in expanding their library of games offerings unless they anticipated a sudden increased demand?
My gut says there will be an announcement on Poken, ChinaLot/Bally's and details are being finalized. Again, a little concerned about the CFO and possibility of departure being due to issues with financial statements.
Okay. I'm done speculating. Buying more tomorrow and strapping in for the ride.
Got a response from the industry newsletter announcing Identa's contracts in Germany. The editor replied asking for a link to the article, which I provided. She then got back to me and stated the article was most likely an Identa press release. She said 'most likely'.
Being conservative, I would err on the side this is NOT independent confirmation any contracts exist. That said, I have no reason not to believe the company, but then again, I'd prefer seeing independent confirmation, financial statements (audited) and more transparent verifiable information.
This investment is strictly speculative for my holdings so if I lose it, I lose it. Love the chart though.
Nothing. The CFO issue is the most bothersome for me. The reason given for the sudden departure didn't make sense, IMO.
I believe the upcoming conference call will be mostly positive, however, I am concerned about the possibility of some kind of financial statement restatement sandwiched between the positive.
Didn't buy more shares yet, my funds haven't cleared yet. Probably a good thing. Tomorrow I'll be buying. My time horizon is long term on this holding, so I'm willing to take a beating in the short-term. The Bally's relationship and Chinalot are the most interesting developments with most potential.
Poken might be a big deal but I'm neutral on that. I just think there was a lot of negative speculation that the deal had gone south when actually I don't think that's what happened. Again, speculation only. My crystal ball is no less murky than anyone else's at this point.
You're correct. What if EGMI were taking a bigger stake in Poken and those negotiations are underway? That would explain a lot. Been saying the Poken deal isn't dead, it's gotta be changed though or undergoing a change to explain the silence.
My hunch is the joint venture part of the deal is undergoing a change. A bigger ownership stake by EGMI would make sense, you don't need a joint venture if you're taking a bigger stake of the profits on the entire pie.
All JMO.
Here's wishing your son and your family well during his deployment. I'll be beside myself if both my husband and daughter go but at least they can watch out for each other.
Pontiac posted the magazine deal after I mentioned it. Poken is featured on the cover of US Magazine. 'Poken rated 4 out of 5 stars'. Something like that.
KD sent me a copy of the cover. I didn't want to post it because it seems like the first message I posted struck a nerve with some folks. Not that I blame anyone for being upset with the company. I'm just more focused on the financials and number of deals in the pipeline.
My hubbie serves in the Army National Guard. Daughter serves in the same unit. They're MP's.
Yes, thank God there will be less reliance on the humvees so more of our soldiers make it home okay.
Checked it out. Thanks. When the lid finally comes off the pot, I think we're going to be pleasantly surprised.
I must be almost out of posts for the day too. Also a cheapskate.
Have Level II, but I don't use it. Rely on limit orders only and usually get a decent price. If I were a day trader, then definitely would be focused more on the best possible price. Buy and hold for me (mostly).
Picked up a few more shares about a week ago. Can't load up any more without sacrificing other positions in EGMI, ALIF, TPI.
These aren't China stocks per se but are global. EGMI and ALIF.
The Poken deal isn't dead, imo, perhaps different but not material enough to require disclosure. Could be wrong, I'm just guessin'.
KD emailed a copy of that cover yesterday, I didn't want to post the rest of his messages though.
I'm going fishing, to quote you Pontiac. Waiting for funds to clear so I can dive in.
Thanks. I contacted the editor of that newsletter to inquire if this was a press release or the result of a journalist's efforts. Don't know if I'll get a reply or not.
Poken featured on US Magazine 2/10 issue. I don't have a link to the cover but I've seen it. Pretty cool.
Hey Pontiac, I'm with ya on the prayers. My husband will probably be Afghanistan bound before the end of the year. Returned from Iraq a year ago.
There would be a premium paid over current share price. The value of this company is at least $2.00 per share. That's not factoring in any growth premium for pending deals we're not in the know on.
I wonder if ChinaLot will be more about using Bally technology through EGMI's licensing agreement with Bally's vs. electronic game cards? On the flip side, EGMI has a library of games that could be introduced either through game cards or perhaps, Bally's lottery machines?
The potential is tremendous. The conference call was delayed for good reasons, imo.
To clarify the comment about Bally's buying a gaming company: my TD ameritrade account had a news release they had bought Games4You:
Bally Technologies Acquires 'Games4you' Team to Join Its Global Game Development Group in Designing Innovative Game Content
9:02a ET January 20, 2010 (Business Wire)
Bally Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BYI), a leader in slots, video machines, and casino-management systems for the global gaming industry, today announced the acquisition of the employees previously with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Games4you, L.L.C., a leading-edge supplier of gaming and engineering solutions for the casino gaming industry. The former Games4you team members are now full-time Bally employees based in Arizona.
The Games4you team is a strategic addition to Bally's Games business, which includes reel-spinning slot machines, video slots, wide-area progressives, and Class II, lottery, and central-determination games and platforms.
The acquisition of Games4you's team will extend Bally's game-development capabilities and enable the Company to create even more cutting-edge game content for the global gaming industry. The Games4you team brings Bally a creative synergy of game developers, mathematicians, animators, graphic artists, illustrators, and media techs -- many who have worked together for a number of years. They have extensive experience in creating both new intellectual property and identifying and licensing today's most engaging brands to create standout games for casino operators.
"After seeing the power and innovation of Bally's game-development team, we are ready to combine our strengths to bring hot games and cool solutions to the Bally portfolio," said Dave Tucker, Managing Director/Owner of Games4you and now Director of Software Development at Bally. "The leadership team of Bally Technologies is bringing vision to the gaming industry, and we are excited to become a key part of building on the Company's 78-year heritage of innovation."
Jason Stage, Managing Director/Owner of Games4you and now Director of Software Development at Bally, added, "To truly bring the next generation of games to our industry, you must have the full power of a company with leading system and server-based technology, innovative game technology, a full IP library, strong financial resources, and a leadership team with vision to partner with...we have found that partner in Bally Technologies."
Most of Games4you's employees previously worked for Atronic Americas and Atronic International and formed Games4you after Atronic was acquired by Lottomatica Group and their Americas headquarters moved to Las Vegas, Nev. Bally has opened an office in Scottsdale for the Games4you team, augmenting Bally's base of regional game-development centers in the Silicon Valley; southern California; Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.; and India.
"The addition of Games4you complements Bally's award-winning global team of game content and hardware developers, and extends our ability to deliver the industry's most compelling games," said Gavin Isaacs, Chief Operating Officer of Bally Technologies. "Games4you's proven experience in delivering cutting-edge games that delight players and drive revenue for casino operators will only strengthen Bally as a leading provider of creative and high-performing games."
Look, I posted that message to be helpful, not start a debate about whether someone was lying over a relatively small number of website hits. Maybe they counted only unique hits, I don't know. It seriously doesn't matter to me, I don't think that constitutes brushing something under the rug.
The fact is we cannot know how many hits were made, we don't have access to that information.
There was other information I was going to share, however, I will pass.
Good luck to everyone holding shares in this company.
Demmo, I'm a new poster on this board although I have been watching from afar for awhile. I hold a position in Identa.
This company's performance is subject of great speculation. You're absolutely correct, I haven't seen any shred of outside verified info substantiating any of the press releases (not in terms of sales, units, relationships).
I tried to find out about the contest or competition sponsored by DOD. All I could find was a contest for a specific engineering project and I think that dated to 2008. Nothing on explosives detectors.
The company intrigues me and I see the potential for a good, inexpensive product and will continue to hold my shares for awhile longer. Your points about government contracting are appreciated.
Long story short, most of what I've read so far is almost pure speculation. Only time will tell with this company. And my timeline is very short. The last PR was more informative, but you're spot on in pointing out the company can PR us to death, it's verifiable facts that count.
I respectfully disagree. I don't know how we could characterize the response as a lie when we don't know how many hits there had been, and at what point in time.
Just my opinion.
Possibly, although it depends on the time of the reply and the latest info he might have gotten from the IT department. Perhaps at that time, some of us hadn't yet gone to the site. I went there once. They were probably aware of this problem early on and maybe there had only been 4 or 5 not realizing a message board was buzzing and more people hit on it afterwards.
Don't know. The number of hits is irrelevant anyway (at least for me). I was surprised it wasn't more.
I used 'Contact Us'. Bypassed IR. I figured as soon as management saw 'sex toys' they would feel compelled to reply.
Sure, no problem. I wonder if they were hoping no one would notice the DNS routing issue. They must've had more than a handful of hits, I find it hard to believe the few posters on this board were the only ones checking it out. On the other hand, if that's the case, then that doesn't say too much about their website traffic count.
Appreciated the prompt response, it was sent High Importance. What it does tell me is that the Poken deal isn't necessarily dead, just changed. Perhaps the exclusivity is no longer applicable but ownership and reseller agreement intact. Maybe they're still ironing out details and that's why they're silent about it, I don't know. Didn't address my question on that point.
It also tells me that whatever update they were hoping to make was contingent on certain events that haven't yet happened. I don't know why they would choose a conf call date with nothing certain to say. Maybe Chinalot is being finalized since their return and they delayed conf call to include. Or like Pontiac or someone else suggested, there's a whole new deal in the works. I did check out Bally's info, and they're in acquisition mode. Just purchased a gaming company. He might be on to something.
I'm going with my gut and hanging in there.
Response from EGC:
Thank you very much for your investment in Electronic Game Card and I personally appreciate it. I also wanted to thank you for taking your time to write to us today. It was very unfortunate for the shareholders and EGC management both that we had to postpone our previously scheduled conference call set for today. We were hopeful that certain events and decisions would have been completed before today.
As it pertains to your question on ShopPOKEN.com. We do have ShopPOKEN.com and this afternoon there was a technical error with the DNS routing number with the routine server updates from the outside Web Hosting Service. There was one digit “4” left off at the end of the code and it re-directed the URL to another site. We were immediately in contact with all parties to correct the situation which has already been corrected. There were less than five hits to the website during the unfortunate event from today. Thank you very much for your investment, being concerned and sharing your thoughts and time with us.
My kindest regards,
Kevin Donovan
CEO and Co-Chairman
Electronic Game Card, Inc. (OTCBB:EGMI)
5405 Alton Parkway, Suite A-353
Irvine, CA 92604 USA
o. 866.924.2924
kevin.donovan@electronicgamecard.com
www.electronicgamecard.com
www.ShopPOKEN.com
You're funny, Pontiac. By the way, my husband is in the military, so I've read your patriotic comments and really appreciate them.
Live in the midwest. We have lots of snow too.
Have fun shoveling.
Yeah, with every order of pokens you get your choice of a toy in a brown paper wrapped box. Bundling. Maybe this is KD's new marketing plan.
I've been investing for many years and never have I seen a snafu like this.
My other half trusts me to invest our money. He was thrilled when I told him we just lost 16% of our new investment plus the 16% nose dive on the thousands of shares we already owned. And by the way, we're in the sex toys biz..:)
Maybe the poken deal fell through for good reason. Social networking. Poken. Sex toys.
Perhaps we invested in more than we bargained for!
If we weren't getting pummeled by the market right now it would be almost funny. When you think about it, this was bound to happen. How many poken innuendos have we read or heard?
There's a genius out there who pounced on this opportunity. Gotta love capitalism.
Email sent to EGC.
Dear Management Team:
No doubt you're aware of the market's reaction to the postponement of the conference call. It's painful to watch my investment in your company nose-dive. Further, are you aware the site you host (ed) for the shop poken is now a sex toys site?
If the poken deal is dead or changed materially from what was originally disclosed, can you communicate the status? Especially in light of the new venture on this website.
Sincerely,
Concerned stockholder
Just visited the shoppoken site. Yup, it's a sex toys site. GREAT. I haven't tried the poken company site to see if there's a message there concerning this or if it's strictly an EGC website issue. I suspect the latter which would further confirm the poken deal is done and either EGMI abandoned their website and it's been taken over by this other business, or it has been hacked.
Or they're venturing into new product lines, kinda goes with what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Has anyone checked the EGMI site to see if they have a message concerning this website associated with their company? I will check both EGC and Poken to see what I can find out.
At a minimum they should be putting out some kind of communication asap to clear this up.
No argument there. Biggest concern for me as an investor is the CFO issue with very short tenure, sudden departure, and arguably flimsy reason given. Hope there's not a write-down or prior period adjustment in the works.
Financial strength of the company, number of pending deals, and relationship with companies like Bally's outweigh my concerns (for now).
Downward pressure from shorters the past few weeks has been hard to watch. Used to read the yahoo board until the vermin crept in.
Bought more today. No reason to delay bad news. As other posters surmised, legal matters could have been left unaddressed. Betting the odds are more than 50/50 it's good news.
On the other hand, wonder when the Poken deal may have fell apart (before Sundance, after Sundance, before announcement by company to have this conf call).
With a 3.45% stake in Poken at $500,000, that deal isn't of the magnitude that an unwind should be detrimental to EGMI. Almost a non-event. Can't be the reason to delay a conf call.
All IMO. Been holding this stock for more than a year. Fundamentals are great.
It sure is. Thank you for that info. Weird timing considering the apparent joint effort of marketing at Sundance only days ago.
Been watching this board for awhile and hold EGMI shares. Where is the evidence the Poken deal is off?
To those of you stating the deal is off, please provide supporting evidence.