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And now.... something really different.....
http://deathtosmoochymovie.warnerbros.com/mustdie/index.html
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Cox Stays Strong Despite Setbacks
Each quarter, Broadband Daily delivers to our annual paid subscribers data-rich analyses of leading companies in the broadband sector. The following is our Q4 01 analysis of U.S. cable operator Cox Cable, prepared by our broadband media research partner, Broadband Markets (www.broadbandmarkets.com). To look at our analyses of the other leading cable operators, AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Insight and Mediacom, as well as a cross-company comparison of all the operators, please click on the Quarterly Reports button in the header or click on the Quarterly Reports graphic on our home page.
Cox
Cox ended 2001 with a strong fourth quarter, even as it faced two significant setbacks: the collapse of Excite@Home and its losing bid to acquire the systems of AT&T Broadband.
Subscribers and Penetration 4Q00 1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01
Homes passed 9,710,963 9,843,052 9,866,948 9,936,499 9,979,207
Basic subscribers 6,193,317 6,213,994 6,166,614 6,206,737 6,237,888
Basic penetration 63.8% 63.1% 62.5% 62.5% 62.5%
Pro Forma annual sub growth 1.8% 1.3% 0.5% 0.7% 0.7%
For the year, Cox's service footprint increased 2.8%, to almost 10 million homes passed, while basic subs rose by 0.7% to 6.24 million. With homes passed growing faster than basic subscribers, the company's penetration declined by 1.5 points during the year.
New Services RGUs & Bundling
New Services 4Q00 1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01
New service RGUs 1,568,424 1,839,907 2,083,884 2,406,327 2,723,173
New service RGUs % of basic subs 25.3% 29.6% 33.8% 38.8% 43.7%
Growth in new service RGUs 280,856 271,483 243,977 322,443 316,846
% change versus prior quarter 16.7% -3.3% -10.1% 32.2% -1.7%
Digital video % of RGUs 54% 52% 51% 51% 51%
High speed data % of RGUs 31% 32% 32% 32% 32%
Residential telephone % of RGUs 16% 16% 17% 17% 17%
Though its basic penetration slipped during the year, Cox was quite successful in growing its new services (digital video, data, and telephone) business during 2001, as measured by its count of RGUs (revenue generating units). The third quarter, typically strong due to seasonal factors, set a record for new service RGU growth at 322,000 (up 32% over 2Q01). The fourth quarter was nearly as good – almost 317,000 new RGUs were added, with record net adds in both digital and telephony. At yearend, Cox served over 2.7 million RGUs; a 74% increase over year-end 2000.
Cox management attributed RGU growth to the company's success at selling bundles of services to both new and existing subscribers. They also cited the renewed importance of home and family to many Americans after the attacks of September 11 as a factor helping the sale of new cable services.
Company-wide, new service RGU penetration is now at 43.7% of basic subscribers, one of the highest in the industry. More than 1 million homes now subscribe to more than one service. Across the Cox network, 15% of new subscribers now take a bundle of at least two new services from day one. In markets where telephony is offered, the bundled penetration for new subscribers increases to 25%. Among existing subscribers, 42% of new-service customers take more than one new service. In telephony markets, that figure stands at 50%. Cox also reported adding about 53,000 new ‘non-video’ customers during 2001, (meaning HSD or telephony subs that do not take video service).
Digital Video
Digital Video 4Q00 1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01
Digital-ready homes passed 7,397,306 8,119,305 8,590,488 8,996,975 9,258,310
Digital-ready homes % of total homes 76% 82.5% 87.1% 90.5% 92.8%
Digital video customers 841,824 960,507 1,071,322 1,228,015 1,386,039
Quarterly net adds 158,748 118,683 110,815 156,693 158,024
% change versus prior quarter 29% -25.2% -6.6% 41.4% 0.8%
Penetration of digital-ready homes 11.4% 11.8% 12.5% 13.6% 15.0%
Penetration of basic subscribers 13.6% 15.5% 17.4% 19.8% 22.2%
Penetration of total homes passed 8.7% 9.8% 10.9% 12.4% 13.9%
Many of the country’s leading MSOs have begun to note a decline in growth rates for digital video, and predict further slowing during 2002. Cox was able to buck this trend during 2001, with management stating they do not expect it to see a slowing of digital growth during 2002.
Cox substantially expanded the availability of digital in its system during 2001. The number of digital-ready homes increased by 25% to over 9.2 million at year-end, or nearly 93% of all homes passed. The company expects that the expansion of its digital footprint will be virtually complete this year, reaching 96% of homes passed by yearend.
Cox added 544,000 digital video subscribers during 2001 – increasing its digital sub base 65% over yearend-2000 levels and topping the prior year's net adds by 11%. As noted earlier, the second half of the year is seasonally the strongest for Cox, and the digital video numbers bear this out. The third and fourth quarters accounted for nearly 60% of the year’s growth in digital video, when 315, 000 subs were added. Quarterly additions during 4Q were at nearly the same level as the prior year, dropping less than 1%.
Last year’s 65% increase in digital subscribers still leaves considerable room for future growth. Penetration of digital video now stands at 22.2% of basic subs. Though this is up from less than 14% a year ago, it is still well below levels achieved by some of Cox's peers.
During the second half of 2001, Cox was able to increase net adds over the same period during 2000 (315,000 vs. 282,000), even though availability of digital service was increasing less quickly (an 8% increase during 2H01 vs. 15% during 2H00).
Continued growth in the penetration of data and telephony is expected to help drive penetration of digital video. Cox reports that 62% of its three-product customers take digital video. Among two-product households, 37% take digital video--significantly higher than the company's overall digital penetration of 22%.
High-Speed Data
Despite the difficulties posed by the bankruptcy and shutdown of the @Home network, Cox experienced substantial growth in its residential data service last year.
During the company's 3Q01 conference call, Cox executives discussed the need to insure the stability of their data services, but had not yet made a decision on a course of action.
By mid-4Q01, Cox, like most of other major MSOs faced with the decision, elected to build and operate its own network rather than continuing to outsource the core of what has become a strategically vital service.
The subscriber-transition process was originally planned to begin in December and be completed by mid-year 2002. In the wake of @Home's bankruptcy announcement, Cox management decided to accelerate the transition. During the company's February 12 earnings call, they said they expected the process to be 100% completed ‘within the next few weeks.’
The transition required two distinct steps. The first, migrating network traffic from @Home to the Cox-owned network, was 99% completed by mid-February. The second step, updating subscriber software to allow them to utilize the new network, was 88% done by mid-February, with expectations that it would be completed by the end of February, when the @Home network was scheduled to shut down. Indications are that this goal was largely met without major service disruptions. Cox management believes that having their own network for data services will allow them to provide a more reliable service, with lower operating costs than they experienced with @Home.
High Speed Data 4Q00 1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01
HSD-ready homes passed 7,122,773 7,756,393 8,384,737 8,738,507 9,057,020
HSD-ready homes % of total homes 73% 79% 85% 88% 91%
High-speed data customers 481,947 587,170 668,038 779,499 883,562
Quarterly net adds 83,131 105,223 80,868 111,461 104,063
% change versus prior quarter 6% 26.6% -23.1% 37.8% -6.6%
Penetration of HSD-ready HP 6.8% 7.6% 8.0% 8.9% 9.8%
Penetration of basic subscribers 7.8% 9.4% 10.8% 12.6% 14.2%
Penetration of total homes passed 5.0% 6.0% 6.8% 7.8% 8.9%
Average Weekly Run Rate 6,395 8,094 6,221 8,574 8,005
To Cox's credit, HSD subscriber growth was not noticeably slowed by the @Home transition. Total subscribers at yearend reached nearly 884,000 – an 83% increase over yearend 2000. Cox added 401,000 subscribers during 2001, compared to 278,000 in 2000, a 44% increase. Fourth quarter net adds of 104,000 were slightly below the third quarter, which company management attributed to seasonal factors related to the beginning of school and the events of September 11th.
Penetration of high-speed data at yearend was just below 10% of marketable homes, up from 6.8% a year ago. During the year, availability of HSD on the Cox network increased significantly: from 73% to 91% of homes passed.
The subscribership increase was accomplished by relatively consistent performance throughout the year. Weekly run-rates for new HSD subscribers averaged 7,723 during the entire year – quarterly run rates ranged from a high of 8,574 during 3Q to 2Q01’s low of 6,221.
Company management noted that HSD demand has increased in part due to generally declining modem prices, and wider availability of the modems at retail outlets. Cox's HSD service is now marketed in 498 retail outlets, and the company has deals with major chains, including Circuit City, CompUSA, and Gateway.
As a result, modem ownership, rather than leasing, has become the preferred method of connection to the Cox network; with 52% of new subscribers choosing to buy their modem during 4Q01. Company executives noted that this trend has significant long-term advantages to Cox, as customer who have invested in the modem are less likely to switch to DSL or go back to dial-up.
Modem ownership also implies lower operating costs for Cox, as more customers are able to self-install the modem and initiate the service. During 4Q01, more than 30% of new data subs chose to self-install.
Telephone Services
Telephony
Residential telephone 4Q00 1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01
Telephony-ready homes passed 2,426,580 2,644,390 2,816,649 3,142,393 3,338,097
Phone-ready homes % of total homes 25.0% 26.9% 28.5% 31.6% 33.5%
Residential telephone customers 244,653 292,230 344,524 398,813 453,572
Quarterly net adds 38,977 47,577 52,294 54,289 54,759
% change versus prior quarter 0% 22.1% 9.9% 3.8% 0.9%
Penetration of telephone-ready homes 10.1% 11.1% 12.2% 12.7% 13.6%
Penetration of basic subscribers 4.0% 4.7% 5.6% 6.4% 7.3%
Penetration of total homes passed 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5%
Lines 334,589 393,705 456,084 518,922 583,114
Lines Per Customer 1.37 1.35 1.32 1.30 1.29
Average Weekly Run Rate 2,998.00 3,660 4,023 4,176 4,212
Cox now offers residential phone service to one-third of the homes passed by its networks. Telephone availability continued to expand throughout 2001, rising from just 25% of homes passed at the start of the year. Most recently, Cox launched telephone service in New Orleans last December, bringing to eight the number of markets in which it offers the service. Its telephone footprint will continue to expand during 2002; one more unspecified market has been approved for launch this year, with one or two others considered candidates for approval.
Cox executives characterized their telephone service as experiencing ‘tremendous growth’ during 2001. During 4Q01 more than 54,000 residential phone lines were sold – a record quarter and, in fact, the eighth consecutive record quarter for Cox’s telephone service. At yearend, more than 450,000 residential phone lines were in service on Cox networks, completing more than 16 million calls per day. This is an 85% increase over the course of the year – during a period where phone-marketable homes increased only 38%.
Among telephone customers, more than 74% also purchase long-distance telephone service from Cox, contributing significantly to average revenue per user (ARPU) for telephone service of more than $50/month.
Though Cox currently utilizes circuit-switched technology to provide telephone service, company executives believe voice-on-Internet Protocol (VOIP) may find applications in smaller markets, and they anticipate trials of the technology this year.
Cox Business Services also enjoyed solid growth during 2001; total circuits in service rose by 48% during the year to 1.77 million voice grade equivalents (VGEs)
Financial Results
Strong RGU growth translated into positive financial results for Cox last year. Cable systems revenue (excluding CBS) topped $1 billion in 4Q01, the first billion-dollar quarter for Cox's cable operation. Annual revenue, again excluding CBS, was just under $4 billion. Compared to the full year 2000 and 4Q00, total revenue increased 12.8% and 13.8% respectively. Average monthly revenue per basic subscriber, excluding CBS, was $55.86 for the quarter, up 12.9% from $49.46 during 4Q00.
Cox Business Services revenue also increased nicely during the year, totaling $144.3 million, including a 4Q01 that exceeded $40 million, a record for CBS. Compared to prior periods, these were increases of 47.5% for the year and 38% for 4Q. Including CBS, total company revenues for the year increased 14% over 2000 levels.
Operating Results ($000)
Revenues 4Q00 1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01 Full Year 2001
Residential
Video 722,152 738,276 757,378 762,573 778,572 3,036,799
% of total revenue 76.3% 77.9% 75.6% 73.9% 71.9% 74.7%
Data 44,293 56,566 62,308 75,169 91,654 285,697
% of total revenue 4.7% 6.0% 6.2% 7.3% 8.5% 7.0%
Telephony 34,113 40,149 47,837 55,949 63,998 207,933
% of total revenue 3.6% 4.2% 4.8% 5.4% 5.9% 5.1%
Other 12,550 12,670 12,013 11,496 16,275 52,454
% of total revenue 1.3% 1.3% 1.2% 1.1% 1.5% 1.3%
Total residential service revenues 813,108 847,661 879,537 905,187 950,499 3,582,884
% of total revenue 86.0% 89.4% 87.8% 87.7% 87.8% 88.1%
Advertising 103,588 69,687 86,986 88,628 92,278 337,579
% of total revenue 11.0% 7.4% 8.7% 8.6% 8.5% 8.3%
Cox Business Services 29,200 30,594 35,278 38,155 40,252 144,279
% of total revenue 3.1% 3.2% 3.5% 3.7% 3.7% 3.5%
Total revenues 945,896 947,942 1,001,800 1,031,970 1,083,029 4,064,741
Revenue excluding CBS 916,696 917,348 966,522 993,815 1,042,777 3,920,462
Cash flow
Operating cash flow 386,450 358,132 382,114 396,259 432,464 1,568,969
Operating cash flow margin 40.9% 37.8% 38.1% 38.4% 39.9% 38.6%
Revenue and cash flow per sub
Monthly revenue per basic sub $ 51.03 $ 50.93 $ 53.94 $ 55.60 $ 58.02
Monthly rev. per sub excluding CBS $ 49.46 $ 49.29 $ 52.04 $ 53.55 $ 55.86
Monthly avg cash flow per basic sub $ 20.87 $ 19.24 $ 20.55 $ 21.35 $ 23.17
Monthly cash flow per sub excl. CBS $ 20.23 $ 18.62 $ 19.83 $ 20.56 $ 22.31
Though video, at 75% of total revenue, remains the revenue backbone for Cox, the contributions of HSD and telephone continue to grow more significant in the big picture. Revenue from HSD service more than doubled in 2001 compared to 2000, accounting for 7% of total revenue for the year and 8.5% for 4Q01. Annual telephone revenues nearly doubled, with a 96% increase over 2000, contributing 5.1% of Cox’s total revenue for the year and 5.9% for 4Q01
Advertising revenues generally declined last year, and Cox was no exception. At $93 million, 4Q01 ad revenues were 11% below 4Q00. Advertising revenue for the year was nearly $338 million, down 4.3% from the prior year.
On the cost side of the equation, operating expenses increased 15%, due in large part to the impact of an 11% increase in programming acquisition costs.
Operating cash flow (OCF) margin for the fourth quarter was 39.9%, down a point from 4Q00's 40.9%. As a result, the quarter's OCF ($432.5 million) grew somewhat slower than revenue, coming in 11.9% ahead of 4Q00. During the past five quarters, Cox's OCF margin has fluctuated within the 37.8-40.9% range.
Guidance for 2002
Cox management is very bullish regarding future growth and the company's position in the industry, predicting that the momentum of 4Q01 will continue this year. With cable plant upgrades now approaching completion, well more than 90% of Cox's homes passed will marketable for both digital and HSD services this year. Company management expects this upgraded network platform to support even greater rates of RGU and OCF growth during 2002 than 2001, even as they cut capital expenditures to $2 billion, down from $2.2 billion last year. No slowdown is expected in any of the new services categories, including digital video.
Some analysts have speculated that, after losing the bid to acquire AT&T Broadband, Cox will be hunting for a comparable merger candidate. While Cox executives expressed regret that they were not the winner in the AT&T contest, their comments suggest that they do not see other major opportunities for M&A expansion this year, nor do they feel a sense of urgency to pursue growth via acquisition.
This is one of the coolest things I have seen. At first, I didn't think I
was doing it right, but I figured it out and it is a revelation. Go to the
link below, and look at the picture. You will see what appears to be a
normal apartment-sized dining room.
Focus your eyes on the clear bowl that sits on the table. There are two
little blue dots on the bowl. The trick is that you have to let your eyes
kind of fall into a relaxed trance on them. The temptation is to want to
look out the windows behind the table, but don't do that! Keep focused on
the bowl. It took me about half a minute to where I could keep my eyes from
drifting.
Tell me what you see. Make sure your sound is turned up (you'll know what I mean).
http://www.gloryroad.net/illusion.swf
MIT to make tech 'exoskeleton' for Army
By Tiffany Kary
Special to ZDNet News
March 14, 2002, 7:05 AM PT
URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-859896.html
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to create military uniforms that can block out biological weapons and even heal their wearers as part of a five-year contract to develop nanotechnology applications for soldiers, the U.S. Army announced Wednesday.
MIT won the $50 million contract to create an Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, or ISN. The ISN will be staffed by around 150 people, including 35 MIT professors, specialists from the Army, DuPont and Raytheon, as well as doctors from the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, according to MIT.
The U.S. government has been boosting its spending on technology as part of an increased interest in national defense after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Nanotechnology, the science of building things on a molecular level, has received a major chunk of the budget, and spending at the National Nanotechnology Initiative is expected to rise 17 percent this year.
The unique lightweight materials that can be composed using nanotechnology will possess revolutionary qualities that MIT says will help it make a molecular "exoskeleton" for soldiers. The ISN plans to research ideas for a soft--and almost invisible--clothing that can solidify into a medical cast when a soldier is injured or a "forearm karate glove" for combat, MIT said.
Researchers also hope to develop a kind of molecular chain mail that can deflect bullets.
In addition to protecting soldiers, these radically different materials will have uses in offensive tactics, at least psychologically.
"Imagine the psychological impact upon a foe when encountering squads of seemingly invincible warriors protected by armor and endowed with superhuman capabilities, such as the ability to leap over 20-foot walls," ISN director Ned Thomas said in a release.
I hope this is us.
Philadelphia-based Comcast said 3/14 that it will introduce HDTV
in several markets during 2002. During the middle of the year, it will roll out service in northern Virginia. During the second half of the year, HDTV will be introduced in the Maryland suburbs, Detroit and Indianapolis. HDTV will be available in Washington, D.C. next year.
Could it be us?
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/nanotech101.asp click the pic! cool
What is nanotechnology? You'll get different answers depending on whom you ask. But broadly speaking, nanotechnology is the art of manipulating matter at the atomic scale. It crosses and unites academic fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and even computer science.
What's agreed about nanotechnology? That it is a technology in its infancy, and that it holds the potential to change everything. What's disagreed is nearly everything else: what it will make possible, when those possibilities will be realized and even whether to pursue nanotech at all. People also disagree about what nanotechnology is: Are polymers nanotechnology? What about gene splicing? And many companies tack "nano" to their name with little science to back them up.
Here every guide to nanotechnology pauses to explain the word's exotic prefix. Derived from the Greek word for midget, "nano" means 10-9, a billionth part. A nanometer (abbreviated nm), for example, is one billionth of a meter. An atom measures about one-third of a nanometer. The diameter of a human hair—a measurement notable, perhaps, as nanotechnology's greatest cliché—is about 200,000 nm.
Having explained the prefix, it wouldn't do to overlook the workaday root. Nanotechnology is not just the study of the very small, it is technology: the practical application of that knowledge. Since Democritus, scientists have pondered atoms, but only in the last few decades have they begun to pick them up and put them where they want.
Nanotech Executive Summary provides an overview of nanotechnology's history, what you might find in the nanotechnologist's toolbox, and what scientists are building—and hope to build—with those tools. Finally, it lists further resources: major research centers, government initiatives, private companies, organizations and publications leading the nanotechnology revolution.
Small History
In 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman advised his colleagues: "There's plenty of room at the bottom." In this speech, he envisioned a discipline devoted to manipulating smaller and smaller units of matter. "I am not afraid," he wrote, "to consider the final question as to whether, ultimately—in the great future—we can arrange the atoms the way we want; the very atoms, all the way down!"
This visionary salvo is widely regarded as the first scientific discussion of nanotechnology. It wasn't until 1974, however, that the term itself was coined, by Norio Taniguchi at the University of Tokyo. Taniguchi distinguished engineering at the micrometer scale—so-called micro-technology—from a new, sub-micrometer level, which he dubbed "nano-technology."
For another decade, nanotechnology remained far from the public consciousness. Then, in 1986, MIT researcher Eric Drexler wrote Engines of Creation, the book widely credited with taking nanotech mainstream. Ironically, the newfound public enthusiasm for nanotechnology hurt the field's reputation among some academics, who linked it with pseudoscience and futurology.
At the same time Drexler was writing his book, researchers at Rice University were studying a bizarre molecule. By vaporizing carbon and allowing it to condense in an inert gas, Richard Smalley's research team observed that the carbon formed highly stable crystals of sixty atoms apiece. They suspected the crystals shared the familiar soccer-ball structure used in architect R. Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, and named their discovery "buckminsterfullerene," which was quickly shortened to "fullerene," or "buckyball."
The buckyball remains nanotechnology's most famous discovery. It earned Smalley and his colleagues the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and cemented nanotechnology's reputation as a cutting-edge research field.
Nanotechnology Toolbox
There is a simple reason why nanotechnology did not emerge as an experimental science before the 1980s: no tools existed to allow scientists to observe—let alone manipulate—individual atoms. This changed in the early 80s, with the invention by IBM researchers of two new microscopy techniques: atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM).
Both these techniques were a radical departure from previous types of microscopy, which worked by reflecting either light (in the case of optical microscopes) or an electron beam (in the case of electron microscopes) off a surface and onto a lens. But no reflective microscope, not even the most powerful, could image an individual atom. To do so, the new techniques use a cantilever to "read" a surface directly, the way a record player's needle reads a record.
Atomic force microscopy works by passing the cantilever—so sharp that its tip is composed of a single atom—within a few nanometers of a surface. The atomic forces exerting a pull on the cantilever are measured to create an atom-by-atom topographical map.
Scanning tunneling microscopy is similar, but measures a quantum effect called tunneling. STM's cantilever carries a tiny charge, and classical physics says that a wall of potential energy should prevent the charge from jumping to the surface. But when two atoms come close enough, quantum rules let electrons "tunnel" through that wall; STM measures these escapees to map the surface. STM won its inventors the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics.
By modulating the voltage at the cantilever's tip, scientists can use these techniques not only to see atoms, but also to push and pull them into place. They are both the jeweler's glass and the ball-peen hammer of nanotechnology. But a significant part of nanotech research involves the creation of nanoscale patterns, which requires a finer tool than a ball-peen hammer.
That tool is e-beam lithography. Unlike photolithography, the technique used to make microchips, e-beam lithography is not constrained by the wavelength of light. Using a beam of electrons from a scanning electron microscope, researchers can etch details as fine as a few nanometers.
Big Goals
Today, nanotechnology labs focus on basic research. But they hope one day to apply their discoveries to nearly all branches of technology. Already, research points to revolutionary advances in materials, pharmaceuticals and information technology.
Research that built on Smalley's buckyballs led to the discovery of crystal carbon tubes, similar in structure to buckyballs, but many thousands of atoms long. Excellent conductors with amazing strength, the tiny tubes come in all manner of shapes, sizes and electrical properties. That has led scientists to envision a wide range of applications—from nanoscale electronics to super materials, to tiny machines.
A carbon nanotube is a sheet of carbon atoms joined in a pattern of hexagons and rolled into a cylinder, like chicken wire. Where the two ends wrap around and meet determines the conductive properties of the nanotube. Line the ends up one way, and the nanotube conducts electricity like a metal. But line them up another way, and the nanotube behaves like a semiconductor. Roll one nanotube around another, and you get a multi-walled nanotube—a metal-type inside a semiconductor inside a metal-type, for example.
Using semiconducting nanotubes, researchers have assembled several basic electronic components, including transistors, the electronic logic gate at the heart of all computing. Labs also report success with other nanomaterials, such as silicon nanowires. This is exciting news for the semiconductor industry, which expects to hit the theoretical limit of photolithography within a decade.
Nanoscale approaches to computing, such as molecular computing—which uses single-molecule switches to process data—and quantum computing—which uses single electrons—offer hope that integrated circuits can continue to keep up with Moore's law, which predicts that circuit size will halve, and speed therefore double, every 18 months.
Other research groups are exploring the intersection of nanotechnology and biology, looking for ways to recognize and control the biomolecules that govern normal as well as diseased cell activity. Implantable, intracellular sensing systems, together with custom DNA chips and smarter drugs, promise to transform biomedicine into a much more precise discipline than it is today.
But nanotechnology's greatest advantage—the ability to manipulate individual atoms—is also one of its greatest hurdles. To be practical in the real world, nanotechnology must scale up—way up. Today, researchers assemble nanodevices one molecule at a time. But to be useful, a device would have to incorporate millions of molecules, precisely arranged.
To this end, researchers are exploring "self-assembly": molecular designs that automatically arrange themselves into the desired pattern or device. DNA has been called the perfect example of a self-assembling machine: a single molecule that, under the right conditions, creates not only replicas of itself, but incredibly complex organisms.
Nanotech Resources
International
European Research Area
Nanotechnology Research Institute (Japan)
PHANTOMS
U.S. Government
National Nanotechnology Initiative
Department of Defense
Department of Energy
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Environmental Protection Agency
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Science Foundation
Universities
Harvard University
Nanotechnology at Harvard
Charles Lieber Group
MIT
Nanostructures Laboratory
Nanostructured Materials Research Laboratory
Northwestern University
Institute for Nanotechnology
Princeton University
Nanostructures Laboratory
Rice University
Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology
Richard Smalley
University of California
California Nanosystems Institute
Yale University
Nanotechnology Laboratory
Companies
Hewlett-Packard Quantum Science Research
IBM Nanoscale Science Department
Zyvex
Organizations
Foresight Institute
NanoTech Investor
News & Journals
Nanodot
Nanotechnology
Small Times
Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology
WorldCom swallows poison pill, lets see what happens, get an idea just in case we need to do it, who knows?
WorldCom adopts rights plan with 15 pct trigger
CLINTON, Miss. March 8 (Reuters) - Telecommunications service provider WorldCom Inc. <WCOM.O>, reeling from watching its stock price fall by half the last six weeks, on Friday said it would adopt a shareholder rights plan to guard against "undervalued or unfair takeovers."
The rights plan, which effectively makes hostile or unsolicited takeover attempts inordinately expensive and difficult, would be triggered if any investor acquires 15 percent or more of WorldCom's outstanding shares.
WorldCom's said it was not currently aware of any attempt to acquire the Clinton, Mississippi-based company, but the rights plan adoption is symbolic of the firm's dramatic fall from grace over the last six months.
After having its first business plan sketched on a restaurant napkin by Chief Executive Bernie Ebbers in 1983, WorldCom became one of the country's most acquisitive companies and eventually grew into the No. 2 U.S. long-distance voice and data services company.
But recently, WorldCom has struggled with slowing revenue growth as business and residential customers slashed spending in the weak economy. Price wars, excess capacity of high-speed networks, and competition from the Baby Bells and wireless telephones added to its woes.
Investors' concerns that WorldCom may might follow other telecom companies, such as rival Global Crossing Ltd. <GBLXQ.PK>, into bankruptcy also slammed its stock price, leaving it vulnerable to an unwanted takeover bid.
"The Board of Directors determined that this Shareholder Rights Plan is an effective and reasonable method to safeguard the interests of our shareholders," said Ebbers, who has staunchly defended WorldCom's's balance sheet.
"We want to ensure that the future benefits of current programs and initiatives cannot be denied to shareholders by an opportunistic, undervalued acquisition of the Company," Ebbers said in a prepared statement.
Last year WorldCom restructured and created two tracking stocks. Shares of WorldCom Group <WCOM.O> track the company's main data, corporate telephone and international businesses, while MCI Group <MCIT.O> shares follow the residential long-distance telephone operations and dial-up Internet operation.
The rights plan calls for a dividend distribution of one preferred stock purchase right for each outstanding share of WorldCom Group stock and MCI Group stock. The dividend will be made to shareholders of record on March 18.
The rights will expire on March 18, 2012, unless earlier terminated or redeemed.
Investors reacted positively to the plan, sending shares of WorldCom Group up 79 cents, or 9.4 percent, to close at $9.19 on the Nasdaq market. Shares of MCI Group jumped 95 cents, or 10.75 percent, to close at $9.79, also on Nasdaq.
17:40 03-08-02
TO ERR IS HUMAN, BUT...
Sometimes all you can do is laugh.
In March of 1992 a man living in Newton, Massachusetts received a
bill on his as yet unused credit card stating that he owed $0.00.
He threw it away. In April he received another and tossed that
one, too. The following month the credit card company sent him a
nasty note stating they were going to cancel his card if he
didn't send them $0.00.
In retrospect, he probably should have let them do that. Instead
he called the company and was informed that (are you ready for
this?) the problem was the result of a computer error. They told
him they'd take care of it.
The following month he reasoned that, if other charges appeared
on the card, then it would put an end to his ridiculous
predicament. Besides, they assured him the problem would be
resolved. So he presented his card for a purchase. It was
declined.
Once again he called. He learned that the credit card had been
cancelled for lack of payment. They apologized for (here it is
again) another computer error and promised they would rectify the
situation.
The next day he got a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now
overdue. Assuming that this bill was yet another mistake, he
ignored it. But the following month he received yet another bill
for $0.00 stating that he had ten days to pay his account in full
or the company would take necessary steps to recover the debt.
He gave in. He mailed in a check for $0.00. The computer duly
processed it and returned a statement to the effect that his
account was paid in full.
A week later, the man's bank called him asking him why he wrote a
check for $0.00. He explained the problem at length. The bank
replied that the $0.00 check had caused their check processing
software to fail. The bank could not now process ANY checks from
ANY of their customers that day because the check for $0.00
caused a computer crash.
The following month the man received a letter from the credit
card company claiming that his check had bounced, that he still
owed $0.00 and, unless payment was sent immediately, they would
institute procedures to collect his debt.
This man, who had been considering buying his wife a computer for
her birthday, bought her a typewriter instead.
Who said, "To err is human, but to really mess things up it takes
a computer..."? Computers may not be the root of all evil, but
some days I'm convinced they come close.
LOL Twister, Judging by the post before me I think you better get your shares back! LMFAO!!!!!! Right on brotha!!!
This e mail should freak you out. This was one of my kids that had to leave MIT after he got put away in an Asylum. He returned to his country 3 years ago but he still sends email to my wife's email account. I wonder how he got a public email account? He is insanely smart, To The Funny Farm!!! who who he he!!!
Very Creepy!
- -- Veneste, Elvende, Siellena, Aolo, Naya and Camille --
ok, this time try at least to reply to my e-mails
to clarify again, after a small joke played with seven at outworld,
Aal loses spell, becomes born by wish as a son of seintel and
neida on the planet of ea, by the name of Yaroslav
partially man, dragon and elf
becomes artist, though not publishing anything still
recalls himself from stories about him and the world past
***
jean michel jarre, seth's lieutanat, decides to try to play his role
seithel is alive
***
but we have a lot of things to do, if we wish to escape alive this
strange world. Since my application for this semester to MIT was
late, I will not be returning before fall. We must meet somewhere by then.
We are far too late with our mission and oul.
Where do you suggest it to be?
I would also need some suggestions to our problem. What should we do? I need
your help. Actually, I am wondering why you did not reply before.
I feel a bit dizzy, but seem to remember partially all that was once.
Use this e-mail for all further correspondence.
Fare with blessing of Ardie and Ithil.
valie,
Aal
(Yaroslav)
email to John Howell
Does this look something we may be into ?
Thanks,
AL
BT ESTABLISHES NEW RESEARCH LABORATORY AT MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY
BT is joining forces with some of the world's best brains to identify and
develop new 'disruptive' technologies which will change the way businesses
operate and how people organise their everyday lives.
A new laboratory, specialising in the creation of ideas that offer
alternatives to existing business models and generate new commercial
opportunities is to be opened today at the world-famous Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). Operating within the MIT Media Lab, the "BT
Disruptive Lab" represents a commitment by BT of several million pounds
running over five years.
On the same day, BT is to sign an agreement with the Cambridge-MIT Institute
Ltd (CMI), a DTI-backed alliance between the University of Cambridge in
England and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to create a 'technology
triangle' involving BT's globally- renowned research and development
facilities at Adastral Park, the University of Cambridge and MIT.
The agreement, worth £2.5 million over five years, kicks off a major
initiative which seeks to create a bridge of minds across the Atlantic. The
BT alliance with CMI will enable the two universities to undertake joint
research and teaching projects in new IT and telecommunications
technologies.
Chris Earnshaw, BT's group engineering director and chief technology
officer,
said: "The two events are part of BT's strategy of building a global
innovation footprint which includes its own R&D sites such as Adastral Park
in the UK, targeted academic investments worldwide and equity stakes in high
technology companies.
"The establishment of the new laboratory in an environment which attracts
the
cream of scientific and technological talent from around the world will
stimulate interaction between researchers, students and all branches of our
business."
Research at the laboratory will focus on looking for new technologies and
novel uses of existing technologies that have the power to disrupt or
transform existing ways of doing business or effect rapid or radical changes
within business and society.
The signing of BT's membership of the CMI will take place at Boston Harbour
today aboard a virtual BT Global Challenge yacht. The virtual environment
will enable dignitaries from both Cambridge, England, and Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to 'come-together' on-board to sign the agreement.
Al,
We are very familiar with what BT is doing with MIT and with Cambridge
University through their BT Exact Technologies. This initiative involves a
list of the most visible within the telecommunications industry.
John
Email from John Howell
Al,
We are very familiar with what BT is doing with MIT and with Cambridge
University through their BT Exact Technologies. This initiative involves a
list of the most visible within the telecommunications industry.
John
Coming to a movie theater near you! "School Band"
Here is my wife and I in a movie with our students. My wife and I play Johnny's parents. I get paid scale because I have a speaking part, My wife gets $10 and a recipe for a cameo.
My part only took 1 take and was also ad-libbed, Hell I just had to act natural. I like to see those over paid sports guys do those Chunky soup commercials in 1 take lol!
One link is to a movie poster, my wife and I are on the top left, the other link is to two movie trailers, you need to select videos on the top left. They may take a while but their worth the wait.
Enjoy! lol
http://narrative.mit.edu/schoolband/bigposter.jpg
http://narrative.mit.edu/schoolband/
then select videos
The Fiber Optic Fantasy Slips Away. From the New York Times.Good info here,but its long
By SIMON ROMERO and SETH SCHIESEL
February 17, 2002
Only a few years ago, the dream of striking it rich by transmitting Internet data and telephone calls across continents and under oceans, through endless ribbons of fiber optic cable, captivated one company after another. But rarely in economic history have so many people with so much money got it so wrong.
Instead of a stampede of customers to fill up these fiber optic highways, the industry found itself with too many vacant lanes — way too many. What had once seemed like a brilliant idea — carriers' buying and selling future access on those fiber networks to meet expected customer demand — became a swap meet unto itself, with its own peculiar bookkeeping.
As an element of the telecommunications meltdown that has come to light only recently, the market for fiber network access seems to have been an important common ingredient in the epidemic of accounting fiascos bursting out all over. Certainly, it played a major role in the unraveling of Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Fiber swaps hurt other big communications companies, like Qwest Communications International (news/quote) and Cable and Wireless (news/quote). And they played roles in the cascading problems of Enron (news/quote) and Tyco International (news/quote).
Significantly, the Securities and Exchange Commission took a close look at the practices involved in fiber deals a few years ago and apparently did little to contain transactions that later became the basis for a vibrant swapping market. Now, though, the S.E.C. and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are taking a new look, searching for signs of accounting fraud. Investors and former employees of the companies laid low by fiber swaps probably wish the government had stepped in sooner.
The S.E.C. has declined to comment on its previous or current look at Global Crossing. But its silence, together with copies of correspondence between the company and the commission obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by SEC Insight, a private research company in Plymouth, Minn., prompt a flurry of questions.
Among them are these: Did liberal use of such long- term capacity sales encourage the creation of an active swapping market? Did the S.E.C. accept Global Crossing's assertion of its accountants' independence without a fuss? More troubling, and perhaps hardest to answer: How can the telecommunications industry, now plagued by suspicions of sham transactions and accounting, right itself?
"There is no sector that illustrates creative destruction so effectively," said Howard Holme, president of Bandwidth Exchange, a capacity broker in Denver, referring to the theory of the economist Joseph A. Schumpeter that entrepreneurs generate innovation by rendering their predecessors' ideas obsolete.
There are few other industries aside from telecommunications that changed so quickly and produced so much confusion, Mr. Holme said.
Certainly, telecommunications is no stranger to turmoil after a meltdown at upstart carriers and established equipment makers resulted in the loss of more than 500,000 jobs worldwide in the last two years. Communications companies large and small are now in for an unexpected extension of this instability.
Among the most obvious candidates for closer scrutiny is Qwest, which said last week that it had received an S.E.C. subpoena demanding details of its dealings with Global Crossing.
Qwest has been forced out of the short-term debt markets amid growing doubts about the legitimacy of off-balance-sheet transactions involving Global Crossing and other companies. Fortunately for Qwest, which is based in Denver, it can count on a stream of revenue from local phone operations in 14 states.
The stress from the Global Crossing inquiry also extended to Europe, where Cable and Wireless of Britain and KPNQwest (news/quote) of the Netherlands came under pressure last week as investors questioned their use of swap transactions to show healthy revenue gains when little or no money was actually generated.
Roy L. Olofson, a former vice president for finance at Global Crossing, contends that the company misled investors by engaging in these swaps, in which the outgoing transfer of capacity was counted as revenue while the incoming capacity was considered a capital expense, making it seem as if the company's cash flow kept climbing from such deals.
In some of the deals, Global Crossing and its counterparts issued checks to each other in equal amounts, potentially allowing each to use the proceeds as an increase in revenue, according to Mr. Olofson's lawyer, Brian C. Lysaght. In other transactions, no money may have changed hands.
Qwest and Cable and Wireless are just two companies known to have done swaps of this type with Global Crossing. Other companies include Flag Telecom of Britain, China Netcom and Telecom New Zealand, according to people close to Global Crossing. Many other companies, including Tyco and WorldCom (news/quote), used the same type of transaction to show growing revenue before the market for such transactions abruptly collapsed about the middle of last year.
The collapse was caused, in effect, by market forces. With the spot price of bandwidth down 90 percent and bound to fall further, it made no economic sense for carriers to make long-term leasing arrangements.
Such complexity was much less common in the telecommunications world just five years ago, when big companies like AT&T (news/quote), British Telecommunications (news/quote) and Deutsche Telekom (news/quote) dominated the business.
Long-distance phone calls were of decent quality but expensive. The Internet was not the big deal it is today. When the industry's titans ran short of capacity on their own systems or on crowded transoceanic cables, they hammered out deals with one another by swapping space on their networks.
This system worked fairly well, partly because it helped the companies avoid the need to raise additional money for the installation of cables across the Atlantic or the Pacific. That changed in 1997 with the creation of Global Crossing. It dreamed of profitably transmitting phone calls and Internet data across a 100,000-mile fiber optic network spanning more than two dozen countries. Companies like Level 3 Communications (news/quote) and 360networks (news/quote) quickly sprang up as rivals.
There was no way the average investor could have known that Global Crossing's business model had come under scrutiny in June 2000, when the company's potential appeared almost as unlimited as that of the Internet itself. But on June 5 of that year, the S.E.C. began to take a close look at Global Crossing's books.
Among the S.E.C.'s concerns were how Global Crossing accounted for capacity swaps and the independence of its auditor, Arthur Andersen. Global Crossing had recently hired as its executive vice president for finance Joseph Perrone, the Arthur Andersen executive in charge of auditing Global Crossing.
In fact, according to people close to Global Crossing, Mr. Perrone was already known at the company as co- author of a two-page memo dated Feb. 10, 1999, before his hiring, in which he recommended how to best account for capacity swaps.
Among Mr. Perrone's suggestions in the memo, these people said, were to keep the contracts 60 days apart, apparently to avoid suspicion that the deals were reached merely to help each party meet its quarterly financial objectives, and to require each party to submit separate cash payments, apparently to create the look of a valid deal.
In its July 20, 2000, response to the S.E.C. query, Global Crossing made it clear that its accounting had been accepted by Arthur Andersen. Global Crossing also said it had based its long-term leases on an arcane interpretation of Statement 66, a rule for recognizing profit or loss from sales of real estate developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the group that sets accounting standards for business.
The S.E.C. apparently gave Global Crossing its blessing to proceed with the long-term leases of capacity on its network that eventually were the basis for the swaps the company made with Qwest and several other companies in 2000 and 2001.
Global Crossing continues to deny that it has done anything wrong. And transactions by Global Crossing and others that have been called into question are based on a legitimate, longstanding practice in the telecom industry known as an I.R.U. sale.
I.R.U. stands for the indefeasible right to use a certain amount of bandwidth on a communications company's network. For instance, Company A might own a network that links Seattle and Chicago. Company B has customers in those two cities who want to communicate.
Company A might sell Company B the right to use 622 megabits of capacity on the Seattle-Chicago route for 25 years, meaning that Company B would have the right to transmit 622 million bits of digital information each second on that route. In exchange, Company B might write a check to Company A for $100 million.
Company A must now choose between two methods of accounting for the $100 million, both potentially legal. The more conservative path would be to record the $100 million as income gradually, over the life of the I.R.U. contract. If the contract were for 25 years, the company would record $4 million in revenue each year, or $1 million each quarter. Most well-established telecommunications companies, like AT&T, use the more conservative method.
The more aggressive method would be to record the $100 million as revenue all at once. Under certain circumstances, this method can fall within generally accepted accounting principles. Nonetheless, it is generally shunned. In fact, Qwest appears to be one of the only major companies to use it.
GLOBAL CROSSING essentially tried to have it both ways at once, and even then did not follow its own rules and may have misled investors, according to statements by Mr. Olofson.
In some cases, Global Crossing appeared to use the more conservative method in its formal revenue statements. Global Crossing, however, encouraged investors to focus not on its formal revenue statements but rather on an unofficial measure that it called "cash revenue." Many analysts and investors did just that.
It was in its cash revenue statements that Global Crossing often recorded all of its I.R.U. sales at once, helping the company meet its quarterly financial targets. In the first quarter of 2001, for instance, about one-third of Global Crossing's roughly $1.6 billion in cash revenue appeared to come from the upfront recognition of I.R.U. sales.
A result, according to Mr. Olofson, is that Global Crossing did not even follow its own rules for reporting cash revenue, rules that investors relied upon. Last year, Global Crossing recorded $150 million in cash revenue from a transaction in which it did not actually receive any cash, according to Mr. Olofson.
Among the company's partners in various reciprocal deals, EPIK and Qwest have publicly acknowledged working with Global Crossing. A Cable and Wireless spokesman said, "Certainly we have purchased capacity from Global Crossing, mainly capacity within Europe." He declined to specify the size of the deals. A spokesman for Flag declined to say whether his company had any dealings with Global Crossing. Calls to China Netcom and Telecom New Zealand were not returned.
As far as the other companies' accounting practices are concerned, EPIK has said that it uses the more conservative method, as has Flag. Cable and Wireless reports its results under the accounting standards of both Britain and the United States. Under British standards, the company often records I.R.U. sales all at once. Under American standards, the company says it spreads out those sales over the life of the various contracts. It is unclear how China Netcom and Telecom New Zealand report results.
There will it all end? One clue may lie in the history of the nation's railroads, which are often compared to relatively young fiber optic systems. Some fiber optic operators, like Qwest, even got their start by laying fiber along existing rail lines.
By now it is almost forgotten that railroad companies expanded with ferocity in a post-Civil War boom that resulted in a spectacular financial collapse called the Panic of 1873. Many small investors were burned by the scandalous activities of concerns like Union Pacific Railroad, which, like Global Crossing, stretched the boundaries of corporate behavior in its day.
But eventually, as true believers of the fiber optic age are quick to point out, the glut of unused railway capacity was absorbed.
The scientist and the mechanic
MIT smitten with pair of Newark sweethearts
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- They are a familiar sight here on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this young couple from Newark's Ironbound.
You can't miss Al , all 6-6 and 310 pounds of him. Everyone likes to see him at dorm parties, because when he's around, no one acts up.
"He's everybody's favorite bouncer. He's gentle, but he doesn't look it," says Maryann . His girlfriend. Well, more than girlfriend.
Maryann, with her long, shag-cut hair and her penchant for low-cut tops and leather coats -- when the weather turns warmer, she'll go back to the bare-midriff look -- stands out, too, amongst the cerebral denizens of this corner of Cambridge.
She doesn't look like a research scientist, but that's precisely what she is. An expert on a soil-based fungus that causes liver cancer among peoples in the Third World, especially China, Mexico and sub-Saharan Africa.
Her work on the carcinogen already has aided in the efforts to eradicate the fungus and could provide insights into how certain proteins trigger cancer.
She is, typically, modest. "I know a lot about a small piece of the picture," says Maryann.
Next week, Maryann , who grew up on Napoleon Street in Newark and still calls Down Neck home, will receive her doctoral degree in bioengineering from MIT, completing 10 years of study that began when she entered the institute just weeks after her graduation from Newark's Science High as a Star-Ledger Scholar.
"I never thought I'd get this far," says Maryann. "I was lost when I got here."
Al will be with her next week, as he has been for most of the time she spent at MIT. Then, after they finish their jobs as resident counselors for undergraduates at the East Campus dorm, they'll be off on a tour of research institutes and pharmaceutical companies that have been recruiting Maryann.
"I'm not sure exactly where I'll end up, but I think I'd like to stay in New Jersey," says Maryann, whose grandmothers were both cleaning women from Poland who eventually found jobs as janitors at East Side High School in Newark.
Al, 31, and Maryann, 28, figure they'll get married at the end of the year, make a little money, buy a house and raise a family.
"And I want to make sure Al gets the chance to go to school," says Maryann. AL dropped out of East Side nearly 15 years ago, although he did eventually earn an equivalency diploma.
They met when he was 17 and she was 14. He and a group of friends were watching a girls softball game at a field Down Neck. Maryann was up at bat and got beaned. When she came to, she found herself looking up into the very worried -- but oh so interesting -- eyes of a guy she would later learn was Al.
"For some reason, he was really concerned," she says. "I liked that."
But Maryann was headed for a place like MIT, and Al was looking for a job as a mechanic. When she left Newark, they didn't know whether they'd see each other again.
"I didn't find anybody at all like Al here," says Maryann.
"There was nobody like her in Newark," says Al.
So, after two years, Al left Newark and joined Maryann in Cambridge. He got a job as a mechanic, first with Greyhound Lines, then with CSX, the freight train line. He became part of the MIT scene, even attending her classes.
"He could answer questions a lot of my classmates couldn't," says Maryann. "Al's very smart -- he just never had the opportunities a lot of kids around here did."
When Maryann became a graduate student, Al discovered a new opportunity at MIT. As a dorm counselor, he's been available to perform all manner of services, and not just those of a bouncer at parties.
"Whenever anything's broken, the students bring it to Al," says Maryann. "He can fix anything."
Including, apparently, bad attitudes. Al says he's got a special touch with MIT undergraduates who come to him complaining about the pressure.
"You know, you get kids here talking about how terrible their lives are and the pressure they're under and they wonder why they're sticking it out," he says.
"I tell them what it's like to get up early on a cold morning and get under a dirty, greasy train that's got to be pulled apart. I tell them what an incredible opportunity they have just being here.
"Gives them a different perspective on life."
After she earns her degree, she and Al will go back to Newark, at least for a while. Al wants to stay in the city; Maryann thinks about a suburban house with lots of room for the kids to play.
Well, they'll talk about it. But they both do want kids.
"They'll understand the value of education," says Maryann.
"And hard work," says Al.
I would like an everything bagel with tuna and cheese, a lage tea no milk 3 sugars.... oh and a $400 share price ;)
Patriots
This may be an interesting read for you
What is a Reverse Merger?
Most investors are familiar with the traditional IPO (initial public offering) as a method for going public. Many people don't realize there are numerous other ways for private company to become publicly traded.
One widely used method is the "Reverse Merger", a simplified, fast track method by which a private company can become a Public Company.
This method for going public is more prevalent than most investors realize. One study estimates 53% of all companies going public in 1996 did so through the "Reverse Merger". The same study concluded about 30% of newly publicly listed companies got there through Reverse Mergers in 1999. Percentages dropped because Wall Street Investment Banking firms had a huge appetite for IPOs in the late 90s, and many marginal companies were able to find their way to the public market through traditional IPOs. We expect the Reverse Merger to make a come back in today's climate with very few IPOs being filed by Wall Street firms.
The reverse merger occurs when a public company which has no business and usually limited assets acquires a private company with a viable business. The Private company "Reverse Merges" into the already public company, which now becomes an entirely new operating entity and generally changes name to reflect the newly formed company's business.
The original public company, commonly known as a Shell company, has value because of its publicly traded status. The shell company is generally recapitalized and issues shares to acquire the private company, giving shareholders and management of the private company majority control of the newly formed entity.
Reverse Mergers are also commonly referred to as Reverse Takeovers, or RTO's.
Benefits of Going Public Through the RTO (Reverse Take Over)
Initial costs are much lower and excessive investment banking fees are avoided.
The time frame for becoming public is considerably shorter.
There is no significant regulatory review or regulatory approval for the transaction.
The company can now use its stock as currency to finance acquisitions and attract quality management.
Capital is easier to raise as investors now have a clearly defined exit strategy through the public markets.
Negatives of Going Public Through the RTO
There is no capital raised in conjunction with going public.
There is limited sponsorship for the stock and the stock generally trades on a lower level exchange- i.e. the Pink Sheets or Bulletin Board.
There is no high powered Wall Street Investment Banking relationship.
Things You Should Know About RTOs- Investors Beware
Many highly successful companies have gone public through the RTO. However, there some important risks and negatives investors should be aware of.
There is a much higher failure rate amongst RTO companies versus the traditional IPO. Much smaller and less successful companies are able to become public through the RTO, and many are underfunded. Often these stocks trade very inefficiently in the absence of any sponsorship or following.
There is a thriving cottage industry of merchant bankers and entrepreneurs who specialize in orchestrating reverse mergers. Unfortunately, there are no barriers to entry in this field. Therefore, scams are common place.
Scam artists have developed methods to accumulate large positions in the free trading shares of shell companies. An RTO is consummated with a marginal private company, and the scam artists puts together a massive publicity campaign designed to create activity in the stock. Unrealistic promises and absurd claims of corporate performance find their way to the public. The enhanced trading volume allows the scam artist to dump his shares on the unsuspecting public, most of whom eventually lose their money once the newly formed public company fails. This scam is commonly known as a "Pump and Dump".
The SEC has information on the warning signs of a Pump and Dump cyber scam on its web site. Click Here for that SEC section and please read it. Also, to fully understand the OTC Journal's role in the exposure process for RTO situations, you should read our Mission Statement found at our home page at www.otcjournal.com.
Alternatively there a hundreds of examples of highly successful companies which have yielded millions in profits for investors that have gone public through the RTO. Many of these companies deserve exposure to investors. Without Wall Street setting the bar, initial market valuations can be reasonable, providing excellent opportunities for individual investors to accumulate positions ahead of Wall Street institutional money.
Some High Profile and Successful RTOs
Armand Hammer, world renown oil magnate and industrialist, is generally credited with having invented the RTO. In the mid 1950s, Hammer invested in a shell company into which he merged multi decade winner Occidental Petroleum.
In 1970 Ted Turner completed a reverse merger with failing Rice Broadcasting, which went on to become Turner Broadcasting.
In 1996, Muriel Siebert, renown as the first woman member of the New York Stock Exchange, took her brokerage firm public by reverse merging with J. Michaels, a defunct Brooklyn Furniture company.
One of the Dot Com fallen Angels, Rare Medium (NASDAQ: RRRR), merged with a marginal refrigeration company. This was a $2 stock in 1998 which found its way over $90 in 2000.
Aklaim Entertainment (NASDAQ: AKLM) merged into non operating Tele-Communications Inc in 1994.
Cross Media Marketing (AMEX: XMM), our favorite pick for 2002, merged into non operating Brack Industries in 1998. Cross Media is on track to generate $150 million in revenues and over $15 million in profits in 2002.
Although we can't confirm this from old records, ViaCom is rumored to have been an RTO, along with precious metals giant Placer Dome.
There are hundreds of other examples of highly successful RTOs and thousands of failures. Individual investors can profit from knowing about these situations before Wall Street gets involved and places its own inflated value on the company. Buyers of Cross Media stock in early November are enjoying the benefit of getting in ahead of Wall Street money managers. We brought it to your attention as a virtual unknown at $6.70 on November 2nd. It closed today at $11.93, up 78% in less than three months. On that date the stock was trading at 6x next year's earnings with a 50% growth rate. If Wall Street had done the IPO you would have never seen such a compelling value in the open market.
Taking the RTO To a New Level - Verus International Merchant Banking Firm
Wall Street Brokerage Firms have looked down their nose at RTOs for years. There are no massive investment banking fees generated in an RTO, and companies hitting the public market through this route are normally high risk.
However, there is a New York based Merchant Banking firm in a position to change this perception. Verus International, located in Midtown Manhattan, has the credentials and credibility to make Wall Street to stand up and take notice.
Their Advisory Board reads like a Who's Who of Wall Street power players. As disclosed on their web site (www.verusinternational.com), here is a list of people on the Verus International advisory board:
Jack Rivkin- Executive Vice President in charge of investments at CitiGroup. Rivkin also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Verus International.
Sir Richard Branson- High profile international businessman, investor, and financier. Founder of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records.
Strauss Zelnick- Formerly President and CEO of BMG Entertainment and 20th Century Fox.
Jonathan Cohen- Well known and highly regarded Wall Street analyst. Was the subject of our last edition on Merril Lynch's track record during the internet craze.
Robert Lessin- Current Chairman and former CEO of Witt SoundView Group.
Peter Norris- International financier and investment banker. Currently with ING. Formally with Goldman Sachs.
CitiGroup has minority ownership in Verus International, and brings the expertise of Wall Street legend Jack Rivkin to their management team. The CitiGroup alliance does not guaranttee their projects will perform better than any others. However, investors can reasonably assume Verus has the opportunity to work with highly sought after projects due to their Wall Street ties.
In the near future a Verus International client company will open for trading on the American Stock Exchange after completing an RTO. We believe this stock will trade like a hot IPO, giving individual investors a chance to participate on a level playing field with institutions. Stand by for more information in the weekend edition.
Gee, what you wrote reminds me of a little bearded man working with a hammer on a lage object in the shape of an ark........
Catch the NVEI wave ;)
Comcast to buy ATT cable unit for $70 bln -sources
By Tom Johnson and Jessica Hall
NEW YORK/PHILADELPHIA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - AT&T Corp.<T.N> is expected to sell its cable television unit to its original suitor, Comcast Corp., for about $70 billion, abandoning plans to spin off AT&T Broadband as an independent company, sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
AT&T and Comcast could not be immediately reached for comment. The companies were ironing out final details of an agreement that would make Comcast the No. 1 U.S. cable television company, sources said.
The deal is valued at about $70 billion, including stock and debt, sources said, substantially more than the $44.5 billion that Comcast offered in July but less than the $100 billion AT&T spent building its cable TV network.
The pact, which ends five months of negotiations and uncertainty, would leave AT&T with its shrinking consumer and business long-distance telephone and data operations.
"Comcast was seen as having the most to lose," and the Philadelphia-based company "worked the hardest to be the winner," said one source who declined to be named.
Comcast fought a long, patient battle for AT&T Broadband, which has about 14 million subscribers. In July, Comcast<CMCSK.O><CMCSA.O> launched a $44.5 billion unsolicited takeover offer for its larger rival, but AT&T rejected that bid as inadequate and objected to the proposed voting structure, which would have given Comcast a minority equity stake but a majority voting power in the combined company.
AT&T then postponed plans to spin off the cable unit, and opened talks with other suitors, including Cox Communications Inc.<COX.N> and AOL Time Warner Inc.<AOL.N>.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> backed the takeover offers by Cox and Comcast, and made a separate offer to invest up to $5 billion in AT&T Broadband if AT&T kept it independent, sources said.
AT&T spent $100 billion assembling the cable television empire in a move to provide telephone, data and video services over cable television lines. Upgrading the cable networks became more costly and time consuming than AT&T and Wall Street expected,
AT&T stumbled under its massive debt load, and last year announced plans to break its major businesses into separately traded companies. AT&T spun off its wireless telephone business on July 9.
19:39 12-19-01
9) How will nvei get revenues from the tech?
Licenscing fees. (They compared their business model for future revenues to that of Qualcom's with their chip in the phones).
NOW BABY THAT'S WHAT I LIKE!!!!
I hope you guys arent superstitious or this jinks us lol
Date: 7/13/2001 7:22:14 PM (ET)
Post # 666 of 668
Friday the 13, post # 666
he he
mail from John 7/9/01
I noticed that the outstanding shares are growing without a split.
Could you give me an idea what is taking place?
Thanks
Al
Al,
As with all development stage public companies, operating capital is raised
either through the sale of stock or debt. We prefer the sale of stock.
John
from 1/12/01
My wife and I bought a few thousand shares in NVEI to secure our future.
She will graduate college in June of 2002. Is it possible that the
verification, NASDAQ listing and some marketing will be completed by then?
Thank you,
AL
Al,
As you may know, we are very reluctant to put time lines on the process of
commercialization of our technology. However, with the expanded period of
18 months you have suggested, it is safe to project that all of the issues
you addressed will be accomplished. By investing in NVEI as a long term
investment, you and your wife have demonstrated a vision for both our
proprietary solution to communications and also to where the market in
general is moving. As we enable the telcos to provide low cost complex
content over their existing infrastructure, the ease with which we
communicate will be greatly improved. We remain confident in our strategy
and in the contribution we will be making. Thank you for joining us in this
endeavor.
John Howell