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You guys kill me that way you drink the Viscount koolaid. The company's been around for 40 years so it's simply not plausible that everything they shipped out the door has a 30% failure rate. It is possible that since some of the Freedom technology is new that some components have a higher failure rate but that should be mostly contained within the company during product tests. I would think this is natural for these types of systems as they come out of engineering and into the field and engineers upgrade components etc. Raefield said that the problem occurred before he became the leader but Raefield became the COO in 2012 so if bad product was leaking out I guess it's good that he's finally cleaning his own toilet. I doubt it has anything to do with the share price.
Ted, I originally bought large blocks of vsys because unlike most penny stocks they put shareholders first and were reasonable. The CEO only made $100k so I'm not sure where the Champagne lifestyle fit in. He had 17 years to fleece shareholders and never did. Yet when he was booted I was told that the board didn't go CEO searching, somehow Raefield was johnny on the spot, just like at MACE. It was postulated by someone close that Raefield needed a job to support his Napa Valley lifestyle.... and voila - a ready made job where he's paid about 3x the old CEO and with 3x more options. So, there is a delicious irony for me about this whole sordid conversation.
Well this is all just speculation. Whether the CEO has sold 0, 10% or 25% of the share sales it still leaves up to 75% sold by other "bad people". Perhaps the SEC needs a new rule where all share owners list all share sales, not just insiders. That way CEOs like Raefield will have a list of people to blame for their share performance. Every CEO could call out sellers of shares at their AGM's, perhaps post Americas Most Wanted type pictures of sellers to help identify the culprits in the audience... fabulous.
"There's Ron Winters at the back of the hall. We caught him selling 50k shares to pay for his son's MBA at Wharton. Disgusting. Ask the kid to transfer to North South West Alaska State"
" Oh, and there's Mary Smith, selling shares to pay for her daughter's medical treatment. She bought discount medical insurance and now we all get to suffer."
Hi Neal. I have to respectfully disagree. I have no idea what problems he is solving. That said I had issues with the old people too. I'm sure some people may be impressed with his discussion of office renovations but for me I'm a straight forward investor and there are only 4 metrics (problems) that matter that he could possibly resolve.
1. Technological progress - they have received US gov't approval and patents. However this was already in progress so no problem solved. I've read that patents and they were authored by the old CEO and engineers.
2. Top line growth. Q2 and Q3 have been promising but point back to last year and as Raefield has stated the sales cycles are long to point to things already in place so this one's a bit of a wash.
3. Bottom line and cash flow. I was concerned last year that they were burning cash and their bottom line needed to point to the black. The IR guy told me improvements would come with this years sales. OMG This guy has burned through $1.3M in six months (with higher sales) so they are faced with a cash crunch.... problem caused.
4. I was promised by IR last year that with the good news this year they would start a proper IR program to boost stock performance. The news has happened and we are at .065-.07 less than 1/2 of the highs back around Feb when he took over.
IMO but since I and you and every one else has lost 50% on this stock from its highs this year and at least 35% since he took over I don't get how anyone can conclude that he is addressing things properly.
As far as ex-employees and or the CEO selling shares and hurting the price is concerned it's not whether its true but that it's irresponsible and absurd. Firstly, the stock has traded around 17M shares this year so even if true the ex CEO could only account for maybe 1/3 of the volume if he sold every share he owns, which I doubt. If he's sold a million that's less than 10% of the volume. Most importantly, since he spent years developing the technology, writing the patents etc. I would guess that he would still believe in vsys and hold his shares not sell them especially with revenue up and milestones announced.
Finally, by blaming the share price on share sales by the old CEO/employees Raefield has in effect told the market that the old CEO has no faith in the company or in his leadership. That concerns me.
I don't know. According to the CEO on his quarterly call the shares are apparently falling because ex-employees (the old CEO) are selling shares to support their lifestyles, whatever that means... just a lame excuse for not knowing how to promote a public company stock.
I noticed that vsys shares are down about 40% while sales are up by about 40% since Raefield's coup. He's singlehandedly changed the rules of penny stock investing, that share prices tend to be driven UP by top line growth. Perhaps MBA programs will someday teach Raefield's law - that the price of a stock will vary inversely to the growth of a company. Lmfao
I just listened to the audio file. Their top line was good and bottom line not bad but I just can't see why every investor presentation turns into a list of excuses and shooting from the hip baloney. It simply hurts corporate credibility and since there was no safe harbor statement is also dangerous legally.
For example, they had $1.9M in cash at the end of Q1, $1.3M at Q2 and $680k at Q3. Since they are burning a consistent $600k+ per Q how can they claim they will not need to do a raise for a year unless their sales hit approx. $2M/Q for Q4 since the trend shows they'll be strapped by year end. Someone should email the CFO or IR people and find out where the CEO gets his math.
Good to see they are bringing in a respected IR firm since the company listed as IR, Secure Strategy Group can't be doing much of a job with the stock tanking. The excuse that ex employees are dumping shares and hurting the price is all the more reason to do proper IR. After all, I read somewhere that IR is about bringing in buyers. For the CEO to say there is nothing he can do and that investors should just suffer left me bewildered.
Still waiting to see what contribution these new guys will make. Sounds like the guys that were already there designing government systems and getting projects are doing all the work and the new people are just a cash drain.
imo Whether the news is good or bad will probably have no effect on the stock since management doesn't know how or choses not to promote the company or stock. The lack of news may indicate that the management is not executing and I doubt they will deliver their promised results. My guess is a nominal sales increase based on the US sites that have been coming in since last year and a big loss since Emperor Raefield did all that hiring a few months ago.
I personally feel the company can still get to where it needs to go. I just wish I hadn't looked into the track record of the new management when they made the change or I could still be blissfully optimistic. And of course the Q2 whopping loss added evidence that what people told me was true. Hopefully Q2 will be as promised with revenue up about 70% and a small loss heading to a profitable Q4.
As we stand, in 10 months I haven't seen a single development attributable to the change. Perhaps the new management and board and doing something else to justify their existence.
Just about time to release Q3 results. The CEO forecast $1.7M in revenue and a loss that will drop to just under $200k. Still trying to be patient. Let's hope they top the numbers.
I suppose I'm one of the jokers on ignore. I just have this problem that as an investor I only care about making money and the stock is down over 30% since Super CEO took over - despite a Q2 sales increase of 42%, US Gov't approval, patents etc. My outlook on the company is still positive but tarnished by the inability of leadership to get any stock momentum after several years of waiting for these milestones. I actually see the stock as a possible buy since their market cap is now under $10M which is less than liquidation value.
I'm no expert in this area but know that attending the odd stock conference does little for the stock as evidenced by their efforts this year. Promoting stock is similar to promoting products. Companies that are successful tend to run campaigns to generate stock leads and a full time IR person to follow up and close. If I was them I'd hire an experienced IR person with a good book of contacts so he could start by generating some volume through existing relationships. I'd plan to run a series of targeted online emails through reputable penny stock lead generating web sites. VSYS has such low volume that a relatively small amount of buying could get things going. If they simply do nothing they could double/triple their sales and hit profitability and the stock price could still be around .08.
I couldn't bail if I wanted to, not enough volume and too many sellers. As I mentioned before I could care less who they have as CEO if only they did anything - ANYTHING to promote the stock. With their positive news this thing could easily be .20-.30.
Nice to see they got the patents even if they were authored by the old CEO. Patents awarded + US Gov't Contracts + US Gov't approvals = a lower stock price than when Raefield took over. Anyone else wondering?
Not exactly material. Nice to see the company is conducting regular business and the doors ar.e still open.. I guess
imo Viscount is suffering from 2 problems. Firstly, the only way to sell products no matter how great is to market the product to buyers and they don't appear to be doing any marketing other than a few trade shows and this won't cut it. That's why they keep announcing projects with their main client. Secondly, the only way to promote a stock is to promote it to buyers of stock. I'm sure some industry people own stock but to get to a real valuation a real IR program is required and they've done nothing. People at trade shows are there to find products not investment opportunities and people who work in buildings typically know nothing of security technology other than they use a card to get in.
Even if revenue and profit ramps dramatically the retirees running vsys don't seem to get the concept of stock promotion so their stock could appreciate but not to reflect a true valuation.
I thought you were friends with the CEO? I just figure his 9M or so should be enough but what do retail investors know.
I noticed that in recognition of their meritorious service to Viscount Mr. Raefield and his friends on the board have awarded themselves another 1,500,000 warrants. My guess is that their logic is that despite having positive news and financials the board deserves recognition for having limited the loss in market capitalization of the company over the past six months to only 35% and in that we should all be greatful.
I really wish I could drink the same Koolaid. I kinda feel like the guy at the back of the room who isn't bowing and waving his arms with the crowd as the cult leader speaks.
"Revenue and earnings are what it is all about, and so far the trend is in our favor."
Loss before other items for the three month period ended June 30, 2014 was $2,231,523, as compared to a loss before other items of $293,196 for the three month period ended June 30, 2013, an increased loss of $1,938,327. Of course if you remove the cost to investors for accounting for the CEO and friends "modest" stock options the loss for the year has only about doubled.
Now given that revenue is increasing due to the Immigration orders one could expect some increase in overhead but - Selling, general and administrative expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013 were $2,729,210 and $869,354, respectively, an increase of $1,859,856 or 313.9%.
This should scare the hell out of all of us. Seems to me that they could have probably gotten the orders anyways without the empire building and then perhaps both revenue and earnings would have been positive. Just IMO.
Same ole news and conferences..and same ole stock story. Until they learn to create shareholder value I hope there are no acquisition offers.
I'd be happy to sign your petition to have his birthday declared a national holiday if he can get the stock to a reasonable level. Other than that he can talk to as many of these investor groups as he'd like and the stock will do very little unless they decide to do proper IR.
I Read somewhere That the CEO puts people to sleep with his présentations so 5pm slot a Is not a big deal sine the audience Will already Be sleeping
I just don't know what to say. ASIS is a tradeshow so promoting ASIS as an industry event is fine but for IR purposes meaningless. The Microcap stocks I've held make real moves because they are being promoted based on real or potential news using email blasts, social media, newsletters, or POTS calls. VSYS has the events - financials + US Govt Approval, USCIS sites etc. but choose not to. Trading volume for the last six days is about $600 total. A cynical trader would say that this company has all the signs of being taken private to benefit insiders and screw regular investors especially because they have a real opportunity to move the stock higher and choose not to. I've held for a long time, maybe its time to say bye bye. Seeing insiders is a neutral sign to me. They could be optimistic or they could be feeling forced to buy stock tom prop it up since no one else is buying.
My mind is suitably blown. The company puts out an otherwise nice Q except for the empire building burn rate and followed by the most important news they have ever released, FICAM approval. They are positioned to blow away all comers in the Federal space.... and we see nothing on the IR side.
I don't think Viscount is a joke at all. The Ficam approval is very important and the company has nowhere to go but up.
I agree. Really tired of people like Boogins trashing the company and scaring investors while the rest of us seem upbeat and positive.
I may be wrong but the float is closet to 130M and 185 fully diluted so noit that bad. I agree .09 stock doesn't drag down an .08 stock although the latest round is coming off restrictions.
The stock is more likely lagging because the company doesn't have the inclination to promote the stock regardless of whatever news they release. Also although they had a good top line Q top line the bottom line was awful. They managed to increase their Q loss by over 200% despite 40% growth - pointing to a much higher break even point. Some investors worry about "big companyitis" - a sometimes fatal OTC disease whereby management wants to think big and hire big to feel Big without allowing the company to naturally expand to new revenue levels. This could point to a cash crunch and more dilution by early next year unless they are hitting closer to $2M by Q4 to get closer to break even. More dilution wouldn't matter much if they can promote the stock to reasonable levels.
I'm pretty well past caring who runs this thing but I can't waver on a key point. I've run companies before and if things were coming together like at vsys last year I probably wouldn't make major changes. If I did I would expect the new management to accelerate the progress and wouldn't be talking patience. Their progress seems to be stalling a bit if I was on the board would be getting worried pretty soon. If they hit their Q2 goal if $1.3M then I probably wouldn't.
That could be but the facts tell a different story. Simply follow the news releases. Last year that bagged big distributors, Microsoft, schools, industrial facilities, US VA, US Dept of Labour and US CIS etc. and without cash.
This year with the cash they have bagged more USCIS, some intercom systems and we learned that the CEO likes to attend investor conferences.
Frankly I don't care who runs the company but the shares are stalled and they aren't doing anything about the market despite finally having the $$ to do proper IR. If the old CEO was still in place I'd feel the same way and if the last six months had gone the same way I'd probably be calling for his head anyways.
I recall that it was explained that firing the CEO + internal efficiencies combined with hiring a few staff and some decent revenue growth would only increase the burn by 10K, entirely possible. But if they've added 40% to their payroll it will require a much bigger uptike to keep with this plan, as much as $150k/month. We'll know when they release their Q.
In terms of comments I can see that to some I come off negative, especially those who stress "patience". However, VSYS could be analogous to a baseball team. After a few years rebuilding and releasing Freedom in 2011-2012 - that was my "patience period" - they made good progress in 2013 and Freedom was up 300% so this year looked to be the breakout. They start the season by firing the coach and bring in a new coach who is costing shareholders 2-3x more and who took 2-3x more options. We cash the new coach up and he adds around 40% to the payroll. For me (maybe I'm an outlier) this increases my expectations that the new and improved team better perform now, not next year.
We are basically at the midway point of the season and vsys is trading a bit lower than last summer and certainly lower than when the new CEO took over. Their news is way less exciting than last year etc.
So perhaps we come from different towns but where I come from a team that is on the rise usually doesn't fire the coach. But if it did and committed this amount of financial resources to compensate the new coach and a big jump in payroll I don't think "patience" is the word you'd be hearing on the local sports talk radio shows.
Actually they started doing commercial projects long before government. I'd attribute his comment to nothing thinking about what he's saying.
PR and magazine articles are always good PR but they also raise questions. I remember reading that Raefield had told investors that their cash burn has only gone up by about $10K a month but the article says their head count has gone up by 10? Maybe Canadian labor is cheap. We'll see in their Q. Also the article says the product release of Freedom is at ASIS... huh. Pilato said. "The commercial side of the house is ready for prime time." I've been in marketing for years and you never tell customers this stuff for an existing product. Otherwise they'll figure that what they've been buying for the past several years apparently wasn't ready for primetime?
... and guess what everyone. Another revised revenue forecast!
"Raefield expects Viscount, which is a publicly traded company based in Vancouver, to do "between $6 and $8 million" in revenue in 2014."
The 50 sites and the Q2 forecast were in the Board of Directors meeting powerpoint that was stupidly/mistakenly posted the the vsys website after during the AGM instead of the proper investor call powerpoint. It was taken down within days after an investor called to ask questions and heard a shocked OOPS from the company. Someone sent the ppt to me as an email. The 50 sites were listed as q2/q3 but I give the benefit of the doubt as q3/q4.
In terms of the Q2 forecast in the Board ppt it also highlighted Mr. Raefield's inability to have a consistent story. For example in once place it shows a Q2 forecast of $1.3M and in another $1.45M, more of the Raefield financial magic wand.
That said, as much as I believe in this company, if Viscount was a major public company with major institution investors and analyst coverage they would get savaged over their CEO making random and inconsistent forecasts, posting confidential board documents to the public, and filing incorrect news releases ( last week). Lucky for us vsys is an OTC stock and no one cares.
1. I agree about long lead times and last year's success would be attributable to 2012 efforts. Raefield was brought in as COO to run sales last January so if things stall he would be have to also be accountable as part of whatever is meant by the "old team". For the medium term the company ran into the new US regulations last summer and they are still in test so that has obviously killed a bit of momentum but the company will be in great shape once they pass.
2. Companies don't release what they don't do. I subscribe to industry news feeds and haven't seen VSYS mentioned for webinars etc. which they used to do on a regular basis. I've seen no banner ads, print ads, nada. I could be wrong. I know they did a trade show.
3. The IR guy who was fired by the board told me the COO hired several people last summer.
4. The CEO included the 50 US CIS sites in his AGM powerpoint.
5. Raefield has done several presentations to investors with forecasts that varied and provided another in his AGM PPT. I know Soundview says $4.9M which must have come from the company. Raefield was talking $7-8M in March and $6M at the AGM. I recall another somewhere. Just wondering what they stand by.
As an FYI the company forecast 1.3M for Q2 so we'll know in a few weeks how that went.
Hey Boogins, I have a better Buffet quote:
"I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will."
That's why I'm still long on VSYS.
I think VSYS has a great future and better fundamentals and technology but I don't actually don't have too much faith in Mr. Raefield's forecasts. After taking over a company that had lost the ungodly amount of $6M in 2007 Mr. Raefield was brought in to save the day! I know Mace was a bit of a mess but:
New CEO Raefield to remake Mace Security
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
HORSHAM, Penn.--After just a few weeks on the job at Mace Security International, new chief executive officer Dennis Raefield is putting his industry experience to work in revamping what has been a troubled company. Committing to return the company to PROFITABILITY by the end of 2009.....
OOPS
2008 loss $10M
2009 loss $11M
2010 loss $18M
I'm not sure how much profit was expected but he was only off by $29M for 2009-10 to make break even.
I can only base my opinions by fact. I could care less who the CEO is or what he's paid as long as there is performance. I wouldn't give the old CEO an A but Freedom increased almost 300% last year and I invest in companies that can hit hockey stick growth curves. If the trend doesn't continue then investors should lie the failure solely at the feet of the new team.
In particular, since the company cashed up in Feb, the revenue trend should be accelerating since they have the $$ to invest heavily in staff and marketing. My understanding and concern is that the company has done no product marketing at all since Feb. and this will reflect performance ( both revenue and share price). As far as sales hires are concerned the new CEO hired at least 3 or 4 last year so investors should be seeing results by now and its not reflected in the news. The new hires seem to be management types. Hopefully Q2 will be outstanding and my concerns will be alleviated. As long as USCIS does its 50 site deployment in Q3-Q4 as promised by the CEO then Q2 doesn't matter much either.
By the way the new CEO has provided different revenue targets every time has appeared. Do you know which forecast the company is sticking by?
I haven't read anything on this board that I could construe as an immature attack on the poor CEO but an unbiased evaluation of what he has brought to the table so far is concerning. We all invest to make $$ and the stock has gone NOWHERE since he took over. Also, since he took over in February of this year it would also seem to be fact that the incredible progress of last year cannot be attributable to him and even the first US Immigration projects predated his involvement as COO. This company is a technology play and he had nothing to do with the conceptualization or development so hopefully his expenditures on sales people will bring success. It is simply not yet evident from the company's news flow. Yet, if the company can succeed solely by dominating the Federal space I'm great with that. It would save the cost of all these supposed sales hires.
I hate sounding negative at times but I'm a patient investor while VSYS is languishing with no volume or uptick, not a sign of improved management but a sign of a public company CEO who doesn't much care or perhaps understand about being public. News help drive both. Correction, real news, not drivel about speaking at nobody cares conferences (which obviously creates no volume or price appreciation since there is none.)
In terms of "dangerous speculating" based on lack of news public companies must release any material change as news. Since the new CEO took over there has not been a single material event of any substance or significance (at least attributable to the new CEO) that has been released by the company to investors. Therefore it is not speculation but legal fact that investors should be concerned that the company, the new CEO, and the parade of new employees have not accomplished anything "new" in terms of new clients or sales that is materially worth reporting to investors.
In terms of bad management and turning things around I'll go back to my previous posts that regardless of whether the old management was "bad" they generated all of the positives and technology associated with the company. Last year Freedom increased 300% and the company grew every Q grew with "bad" management. Q1 2014 was a bit of a stall so unless Q2 is fantastic I'll be questioning whether they've gone from "bad" to worse.
PS. "Dennis" became COO in Jan 2013 so if he didn't put proper quality controls in place back then he was a very poor COO to wait a year before taking action and then blame the old CEO.
I would slightly disagree stash in the fact that the company began to make good progress last year and grew despite being cash strapped. The Microsoft deal, projects US Department of Immigration, Dept of Labour, Veterans Affairs, schools, agreements with Honeywell distribution etc. and finally preliminary final US Gov't approval in Feb were all positive. Then they announced a big funding deal and canned the CEO. I expected big things based on the chest beating but since then things have not gone badly as such but with the new hirings and funding I expect much more. They don't seem to be doing any marketing or promotion on either the IR side or the product side. Simply put if you compare the types of very positive news coming from the company in the last few Q's from 2013 and the slop being issued since Feb I can only scratch my head and hope great things are either unannounced or are about to pop. The only other answer is that the new management is administrative focused or is making bad hires and bad decisions. I'm praying we're just in a lull before the big breakout.