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Just had fun taking a trip down memory lane with those 10K's. Has Lebby really been CEO for four years already? His cumulative change in salary was 8.67% while the cumulative U.S. inflation rate was 7.9% over the same period. So he really hasn't gotten a raise this whole time.
It's good to see he committed to be around until 2023, but if you believe anything he says about LWLG's technology, that was already obvious.
Here is his compensation since becoming CEO.
2017 (24 month term)
$265,000
350,000 options @$0.70
2018
$265,000
38,448 options
2019 (12 month term)
$273,833
38,805 options
2020 (12 month term)
$278,250
42,178 options
2021 (24 month term)
$288,000
250,000 options @$1.60
This company changed focus in the last quarter of 2020 from development to product rollout.
1) They productized and trademarked their technology platforms.
2) Released PRs targeted towards hyperscale datacenter decision makers.
3) And began marketing the Polymer Plus platform in open forums such as LinkedIn and multiple conferences.
Product rollouts start with marketing campaigns to build up the significance of what's coming. That's what I believe we are seeing now. This seems to be one of those times we'll all look back at and it will seem so obvious, like buying Amazon stock in 2010. LWLG is literally telegraphing their "mass commercialization".
Around September 2020 must be when LWLG's tech was finally market ready. A few of us have discussed seeing this shift towards the end of last year.
Below is just one more data point showing the shift that occurred at the end of last year. After 7 years on the board, Siraj started an active, paid role on the operations committee.
From the proxy materials just published:
Our Board of Directors has established an Operations Committee in order to utilize the talent of its members of the Board of Directors on a temporary basis for various short-term Company projects. Dr. Frederick Leonberger became a director of our Company on April 1, 2017 and was appointed to serve on the Company’s Operations Committee at that time. Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi became a director of our Company on November 1, 2013 and was appointed to serve on the Company’s Operations Committee on September 1, 2020.
I agree with you Markus. I should have wrote LWLG was mentioned as the “first contender” instead of “number one contender”. I just read my post and I can see my error.
The thing that is exciting is the fact they are a contender on a very short list being brought before industry decision makers to be designed in now. Surely we must be able to capture some market share, if not dominate. Either way, it’s go time this year.
Even more exciting is the fact this is not another sales pitch from Lebby. LWLG isn’t even on the attendee list. It’s not another meeting with Lightwave Logic, it’s a meeting ABOUT Lightwave Logic. That is a big difference.
Lightwave Logic mentioned in this new EPIC video as the number one contender for the solution to the roadmap beyond 400G. It’s safe to say Lebby put us on the map with the Tier 1’s and now we now have other companies (HG Genuine and EPIC) making the case for our technology to Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper, and NVidia.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/josepozoepic_on-wednesday-april-21st-2021-at-1600cest-activity-6788043522932011008-sXwT
Next Wednesday we will hear more about the photonics roadmap. Jim Theodoras from Ethernet Alliance and HG Genuine is presenting again.
Last time he presented, he made a clear case for polymer modulators for use in Co-Packaged Optics.
This time it will be in front of Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco decision makers.
https://www.epic-assoc.com/epic-online-technology-meeting-on-roadmap-2021-for-beyond-400g-ethernet-optics/
Got this email from AngelTech yesterday after the event.
“The platform will remain open until the 12th July and from next week over 35 presentations from the CS, PIC & SiS tracks will be available on-demand.
The event will be rebroadcast at 10am CTT on 14th April and 10:AM PST on 16th April.”
Buz,
You asked this question already insinuating JM’s son was LWLG’s last hope in thwarting off cyber criminals. This isn’t true. LWLG uses AWS to store their data which is commonplace in the industry.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=156383980
Good question Buz. I can’t imagine they would just remove someone’s H1-B visa mid-employment. Anything is possible, maybe he missed his friends and family. I’m just glad to see he’s still working with polymers.
I enjoyed reading your viewpoint. Very well thought out. It was more balanced than I had expected. Your previous short post left me with a clearly incorrect opinion on what you thought about all this. Thanks for clarifying.
Do you have an alternative interpretation to offer? I honestly don’t know how else it could have been interpreted from an economics standpoint. Competition is always positive in this market scenario.
You’re a finance guy, so given the potential for monopoly profits via IP protection and the high barrier to entry, do you agree that more polymer firms and less SiP firms equals a higher LWLG bottom line?
One company can't possibly address the entire $50 billion transceiver market over the next decade. We know the competition currently uses silicon and Indium Phosphide. We want the entire industry, including our competition, to accept and use polymers instead. So anybody working on furthering this goal is adding to LWLG's eventual bottom line.
Of course we want them to use LWLG polymers. Likewise, Intel wants every chip to be an Intel chip. It isn't, but they are still a $275 billion company.
That is the reason I said that even if these students become future competition it is a good thing. Competition drives innovation. It would be better for a handful of companies to be touting polymers rather than Lebby standing up on a podium singlehandedly driving the direction of the industry.
Let me just walk you through my thinking and I'll leave it alone.
Last year we were all curious to know whether he was fired or he quit. If he quit, we were curious whether it was because he saw behind the curtain and didn't find promise in polymers. That was a reasonable question after seeing the Director of Device Development leave on the cusp of commercialization.
The fact that he set up his own Polymer Photonics lab to develop devices beyond 150 GHz proves there was no ominous reason he and LWLG ended their relationship. So it just puts an old issue to rest and was worth sharing on this message board since there was a long discussion about it last year. Have a good weekend.
The main point has nothing to do with his LinkedIn profile or the frequency in which he updates it. The noteworthy topic is that he just moved to Japan and set up his own Polymer Photonics lab to develop polymer modulators with 150 to 200 GHz bandwidth and teach students how to work with polymers. Those students could be future LWLG employees or our competition. Either way, it is a good thing.
You're incorrect. He is in Japan.
If you've been following the company for at least a couple years, you'll find this interesting.
It's a job posting from Yasufumi Enami, Lightwave Logic's former Director of Device Development.
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2436748565/?refId=bzGTMekkQJqG1F85L9SL5w%3D%3D
So this guy leaves the company (or gets let go), moves back to Japan, and sets up a Polymer Photonics lab of his own at a Japanese university. I hope they start pumping out talented polymer device engineers. The global industry will need them after mass commercialization is achieved on the broad market.
He left LWLG in March 2020 and removed all public associations with the company from his work history until now. He has added LWLG back to his work history with the following job description:
"I directed device team for high speed polymer modulators based on hybrid glass/polymer waveguide. and demonstrated the bandwidth of >100GHz"
Here are my takeaways from the 10K after a direct comparison with last year's report.
1) There are 9 mentions of Polymer Stack™, "Polymer Plus™, and Polymer Slot™ showing the company has productized their technology.
2) Total of 56 granted patents, increased from 51 granted at the end of 2019.
3) Added 2 employees during 2020 and plan to add 3 more this year.
4) Many changes in verbiage that did not exist in 2019's 10K. For example, yesterday's report includes phrasing such as:
-"full commercialization" whereas 2019's report said "production"
-"in conjunction with the silicon photonics manufacturing ecosystem"
-"including work in association with external partners"
-"the ability of our collaborative partners to timely satisfy their collaborative obligations to us"
5) Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi has joined Fred Leonberger on the Operations Committee. This shows an increase in workload as LWLG progresses towards commercialization. LWLG now pays Fred $11,500/month and Siraj $4,600/month for their work.
6) LWLG is now using the NASDAQ listing rule to determine our "independent directors". Zelibor and Leonberger have joined the others as independent directors, leaving only Lebby and Marcelli as "not independent".
7) Over 2,000,000 warrants were exercised in 2020 (thanks Walter and X). This gave the company $1,658,442 a few months ago which was likely the cause for the share price increase in January as the company did not need to tap LPC. It also explains the February/March retracement as Marcelli began to tap LPC at the higher share price. I expect the share price will continue to rise now that they don't need funding from LPC for at least two quarters.
8) Through 2021 they anticipate a cash burn rate of $700k/month with cash on hand through the end of the year.
Walter,
You mentioned Lebby's initial main goal was to educate the sector on polymers. On that note, the Head of Market Research at EPIC just posted Lebby's white paper on LinkedIn.
Many groups in the sector are coming to the same conclusion as us. LWLG has the solution.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6782399006258663424/
No worries. I hope you’re right. It seems likely you are.
If you had direct insight or contact with these company’s reps, why you would share it on a public forum is beyond me. But I’ve seen people do crazier things. Thanks for your contributions to the board.
Here’s the history of Gigoptix, BrPhotonics, and MACOM from a lwlg shareholder’s perspective:
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=161826227
Intel currently has volume manufacturing of silicon photonics in its Rio Rancho fab in New Mexico. The same fab that LWLG’s COO visited about a year ago. So I think this is relevant.
So you looked at a building from the outside, and somehow you know what's on the inside? I need those superpowers!
There's this thing called Google maps, street view. It would have given you the same exact information and saved you a five hour drive. Hope this helps!
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.5595651,-104.8665465,3a,75y,338.58h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUnbS_jLpYx5kQYJk3g_-SQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DUnbS_jLpYx5kQYJk3g_-SQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D343.16876%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192
It is odd the report has Kaiam listed as a contributing company. It was dissolved in 2019. That's where Karen Liu came from. So, it's missing LWLG and many other companies as well as having a company listed that no longer exists. Sounds like a solid industry report.
Hi Inversor,
I was also a shareholder in 2011/12 (unfortunately). I understand where you’re coming from and thanks for clarifying your position. I disagree, but at least understand it now. My view is that we will commercialize and the stock will go to $10/share upon publication of that news, regardless of historical price action or lack thereof.
Marcelli didn't state we signed any development agreement with a revenue producing company. That wasn't the cause for the price rise to $3.33.
I also disagree with your statement that expectations are higher than ever before based on over hyped posts here. Message boards don't set expectations for the general investing community, especially for sophisticated investors. The company does that. On the contrary, the company has set very low expectations relative to when Marcelli was CEO. Also, I think we can agree that an increased number of institutions are watching this company compared to 2011 when the stock went to $3.33.
I don't think $10/share overnight with literally any sort of development agreement announcement is unrealistic in the current market environment. I'm surprised you disagree with that assessment.
Someone wasn’t paying attention in their economics class.
Yeah we literally just need some news saying we kind of maybe signed some form of agreement with a revenue producing company somewhere in the silicon photonics industry food chain. This would go to $10/share overnight.
Do you judge the barber halfway through your haircut? He’s not done yet. The demand shock for shares will be much greater when an announcement comes during these tempered expectations.
It could be that Lebby has no desire to attract short term retail investors and his comments are not meant to excite the average dude. The price action over the past several months indicate some people with real money have an interest in parking it here based on what they are seeing with this company.
Inversor had a good point that Lebby is now talking about routers, something the average guy can begin to understand.
It's all good tkg, it should be a positive environment full of discussion here, which you help provide. Thanks for all your posts.
The two separate hyperlinks sending people to the other companies' investor pages is what classified it as an advertisement. Not a huge deal.
I flagged it under "advertising/promotion" and removed it. We are all volunteer moderators, so we only catch a very small percentage of the ToS violations. But when I do see something unrelated or attacking other users, I remove it.
I think most people here are reasonable, so if you can correlate it to LWLG then it won't be removed.
Thanks Steve,
I'll be watching Intel and GlobalFoundries' presentations at 5pm CET. It's a shame they had to cancel LWLG's presentation, but maybe these other two will shed some light on our near term prospects.
Proto and others, please correct anything I may have wrong. Here is the history as I understand it.
1) Vivek Rajgarhia works for GigOptix until 2010 when he leaves to start his own company, Optomai Inc.
2) Optomai gets acquired by MACOM in 2011 and Vivek begins his work with MACOM on thin film polymer technology.
3) Later in 2011, GigOptix files a lawsuit against MACOM for patent infringement directly related to trade secrets (allegedly) brought over from Vivek's employment.
4) In September of 2013 the lawsuit is settled and MACOM pays GigOptix $7.5 million, but admits no fault as part of the settlement.
5) In 2014 GigOptix creates a joint venture with DPqD and names that new company BrPhotonics, headquartered in Brazil. It sends all of its Polymer Photonics technology to BrPhotonics.
6) In April of 2016 GigOptix acquires Magnum Semiconductor and changes its name to GigPeak.
7) In September of 2016, BrPhotonics begins a collaboration with MACOM and AppliedMicro to work on polymer modulators. These modulators never gain market acceptance and BrPhotonics closes shop.
8) In February 2017, GigPeak gets acquired by IDTI for its remaining semiconductor technology for $250 million.
9) In June of 2018, Lightwave Logic acquires BrPhotonics/GigPeak's polymer technology for $300,000. This augments LWLG's existing polymer modulator technology giving them full freedom of manufacture.
10) In 2019, Vivek Rajgarhia leaves MACOM to accept position as the president of POET technologies.
WOW! What a history. A couple reflections in summary:
MACOM infringes (allegedly) on some patents to develop polymer modulators, then settles the lawsuit. Then the company that sued them sends that patented technology to Brazil. Then MACOM collaborates with the Brazilian company on polymer modulators. Then the Brazilian company shuts down and sells its patented technology to Lightwave Logic... I think its safe to say MACOM would be interested in a third run at a partnership to bring polymer modulators to market. I think the question is whether it is in LWLG's best interest to collaborate with MACOM. Perhaps. Or perhaps LWLG has bigger prospects and I think we will find out very soon.
References:
1) https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-rajgarhia-8312594/
2) https://www.macom.com/about/news-and-events/press-release-archive/row-col1/news--event-archive/ma-com-technology-solutions-acqu
3) https://www.macom.com/about/news-and-events/press-release-archive/row-col1/news--event-archive/ma-com-tech-to-vigorously-defend
4) https://ir.macom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/macom-and-gigoptix-announce-final-settlement-all-pending-suits
5) https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/GIGOPTIX-INC-10945198/news/GigOptix-Inc-GigOptix-Inc-and-CPqD-Announce-Signing-of-Definitive-Agreements-to-Incept-BrPhotoni-17931795/
6) https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1432150/000114036116059900/ex99_1.htm
7) http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2016/sep/amcc-macom-brp_200916.shtml
8) https://www.lightwaveonline.com/business/mergers-acquisitions/article/16674097/idt-to-acquire-gigpeak-for-250-million
9) https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/06/15/1525256/0/en/Lightwave-Logic-Acquires-the-Polymer-Technology-Intellectual-Property-Assets-of-BrPhotonics.html
10) https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/11/05/1941141/0/en/POET-Announces-Appointment-of-Vivek-Rajgarhia-as-President-and-Suresh-Venkatesan-as-Chairman-CEO.html
That is exactly how this industry works. There is a possibility that LWLG never directly releases the names of our partners/customers. That is commonplace in the tech industry and is not a bad thing.
LWLG is developing a single component (arguably the most important one) to be integrated into a transceiver or CPO switch. Broadcom, Intel, Cisco, etc. are not going to give up their market edge by showing everyone the guts of their products and telling their competitors where they can get it. Likewise, if we end up inside a whitebox product from FB, AWS, Microsoft Azure, etc. it will be an even tighter held secret as those hyperscalers aren't in the business of giving up their technical advantage.
In my opinion, we will see a PR that states something more along the lines of "LWLG receives first recurring revenue order" rather than "LWLG partners with Intel". Either one results in the same parabolic share price increase.
I wasn’t questioning your motives or position. That doesn’t matter to me. Everyone is here for various reasons. I hope you make a ton of money here. I was just surprised to see there are people who believe the patent was the cause of the price increase and I wanted to encourage you to dig a little deeper to see there may be other things at play.
I agree with Th when he said seniority means nothing in investing. The point is to make as much money in as little time as possible, so you could argue that your relatively late arrival here makes you a good investor, not a “newbie”.
Hi frobinso, do I understand correctly that you believe the patent grant was the catalyst for the price increase over two dollars per share? There may have been other more likely reasons that have been stated on this board. Rkf302 and Jeunke's posts come to mind, if you think its worth reviewing their posts around the time of the price increase.
“tchotchkes” hahaha. Haven’t heard that word in awhile.
No, I said large shareholders. I'm happy to hear you made $15 grand here though. Not being sarcastic. That's good money.
Don't get me wrong, I do agree there are wise times to rinse and repeat. I just think this close to a commercial launch is not one of those times and I know some large shareholders that agree with that.
Historically, selling and buying back later was undeniably the right move here. History doesn't always repeat itself in a dynamic market.