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Thanks. It helps me somewhat. And I share your view that the company has frustrated investors as it appears that the company has no control of itself when they don't file on time. You'd think that by now we'd at least have DEcember 06 numbers.
where did you come up with the $200k number? How recent is it?
Net: your post infers that the $857,000 will last them three months at most, to satisfy cash requirements. They don't even have a new lease yet, let alone a build out. The $857,000, per your post, has nothing to do with them moving forward and building new restaurants.
Raw: that I don't know.
Raw: I agree that it's a lot of money, but they way they go through it, it won't last long. I'm not going back and check, but I think the UWNK restaurant they opened cost more that $1,000,000 for the buildout. What they got was not enough money to build one restaurant, let alone two or three.
That's news to me. WHo's buying? No info from the company at all. They have posted their third quarter results, ending last September, 3 times in the last week. I've never seen that before. I sure would like to know what is going on with these guys. I sent a e-mail to investor relations asking when updated financials could be expected. IT's been about 3 weeks, and no reply.
The sale on April 2, in my opinion, was to fund the extraordinary costs they have with SGA expenses. They'll go through that pretty quickly. That's why they made the sale. They were down to only $55k at end of quarter. Probably just barely made payroll.
The new restaurant probably won't be company owned. If you look at the last filing, they had less that $55k in cash. What are they supposed to build it with? The only thing they can do is to further dilute the company with new shares. Or sell franchises.
I think there's more to it than a dispute. The fact that they have changed from a BB company to a pinksheet leads me to believe that they're not going to produce any worthwhile financials anytime soon. It looks, from your research, that there is just money being flipped around. May have been part of a scam all along. We'll see.
Viva: What private placement are you talking about? Are you referring to the backdating of the pricing of the restricted stock given to Keller? I did find it curious that she just joined the board, and they backdate yer stock strike price a year, March 2006. It was .345. Perhaps that's what you were referrring to. I was also curious as to why they other board members just got the stock, for zero. usually it's used to encourage them to make the company grow, not just handed to them for nothing. I think it was 650,000 shares just handed out to them.
now that I look at it, it's the same numbers they posted in November, just reallocated some from revenue to income. WTF?
I don't know where it's headed. if you look at the financials released today, they made almost $1mm profit for quarter ended Sep 06. The financials that should be out are for the end of the year, Dec 06. I'm at a loss on this.
They missed their requirement to file their financials on time, again. They've done this in the past. They should have some good things to report, as far as installations, upcoming installations, and forward forecasts. I don't understand it either. Okay, so they missed last time, but again? Hence, the addition of the "e" to their symbol.
you're right. I was referring to the last few days, as buyers were in the market "tentatively". If you look at wed, thurs, fri last week, volume was there and pricing going down. Hence the naked shorting observation. Mon thru Wed, the volume improved as the price went up, hence the covering. Just my theory. Today not much is happening as neither buying or selling is going on in any large volume. But it looks like the bid/ask is slowly getting pushed up.
I see that UWNK is showing up in the Regulatio SHO threshold listings. My guess is that the recent price softness had more to do with naked shorting, than fundamentals. Now that the naked shorts have made their money, the covering is starting to create some buying volume, although still tentative buying. I think that UWNK pps has seen the worst of it, at this time.
Budge: if you were convinced that the shares would go higher, why convert the options at all. Why not leave them until you got a higher strike price? Why pay the taxes on the gains? The insiders know what the stock is really worth, and when to sell. The insiders have spoken. Are you listening?
nosleep: My point is that no insider will pay more than .35 cents a share for the stock. Why?
nosleep: Perhaps that explains all the insider selling.
JJACK, SSC: I check my ameritrade account, and pulled up the SEC filings, Form 4, for the Sept purchases by Bushnell and McLEod. They were for .30, and additionally they got an extra 50% warrants for .345 that expire in 2009.
The December and January purchases were purchases of shares for .345 that had been part of a previous warrant award. The form 4 leads me to believe that they actually purchased the shares for .345. They didn't just acquire/dispose of them.
I think your link to MSN is incorrect. I would post my link to tdameritrade, but it will do you no good as you have to log in to the account to get the information. However, this link should take you directly to the SEC. You can view Nolan's filing. It's for .30, not 1.12.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/924053/000101968706002198/xslF345X02/edgar.xml
JJack: you link does show $1.12 a share purchase. Mine shows the purchase price as .30. Don't know what to tell ya.
nosleep: I don't think I misunderstood your comments, I think we have a slightly different view. I'm just saying that the senior most leadership of any company, especially in the developmental stage, must always express confidence in the concept. Otherwise, the shareholders start to bail pretty quickly.
Jjack:
Here's where I got my info. Let me know if I misread it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=UWNK.OB
Here's where I got my info. If i misread it, please let me know.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=UWNK.OB
Interesting insider action. I went back around 2 years, and i can't find where any insider has been willing to pay more than .35 cents a share for the stock. BUt they were selling like crazy in the 1.50-2.50 range. Insiders were still purchasing shares for .35 in December, while the stock was in the $2+ range. Hmmmm. how did that happen?
Exactly what kind of spouting off would you expect from Nolan. He's not going to come out and say something like: "well, this isn't going as well as I had hoped for and it's going to be a long, slow process at best"?
"I believe fully in Nolan on this one and after all the spouting Nolan has done about expansion and franchising etc I find it hard to believe that he would let this one fail..."
UWNK is getting more exposure nationally. i saw the LA Times article in last Sunday's business section of the Omaha World Herald newspaper.
The restaurant appears to be about an hour drive from Santa Ana. Is that correct? I suppose it depends on traffic.
I just looked at their last quarterly numbers, November 20, and added 90 days to it. I don't know the exact date of when they are to be published.
Raw: chill. This was your statement. "You made a statement of the 3.5 hours per two table turnover without being to the restaurant." You didn't censor this statement, as you have so many others, so I have to assume that it meant you agreed with this.
This is great: "Which is why they are getting tons of requests and are in various stages of negotiations." How would you know how many requests they are getting? Let me make sure I use your own language: "My response is that statement is total bullshit."
I smelled sarcasm with your statement "Darn. The profit is in the liquor, not the food." If you agree, then my original statement stands perhaps their margins are better than say Cheesecake Factory due to higher percent of average check being alcohol sales. " my statement was: "Darn. The profit is in the liquor, not the food. " Apparently you and I are living in the same cardboard box. Chew on that. " What was your point?
"Wrong, your statement was bizarre to compare a single McDonald franchise which owns the rights to virtually nothing to the uWink concept. ...They can't make money outside of food. uWink, despite having only 1 location, can make money selling technology to franchise partners. In fact, this may very well be where the bulk of their profits really come from." I hope so, as they don't seem to be able to make money from their restaurant. GLTA.
"they turn tables a SUBSTANTIALLY faster than twice every 3.5 hours on average. " That tells me nothing, other than you can't quantify it.
"Franchise agreements are in various stages of negotiations. This includes finalizing. You may "think" none will be sold until after bugs are ironed out but that's not the reality - some people have better vision than that and want to make sure they have the monopoly power as only one franchise agreement is sold per region. They snooze, they lose." No, you're wrong. People buy a franchise because it's a proven concept. Otherwise, why pay for it? You're just wrong.
"I didn't change any numbers - I used the realistic numbers. They did $185,000 in sales in January. They expanded capacity in February. Business has continually grown in February. In February they announced 3 weeks into it that they are doing 3,000-3,5000 a week in customers. I think 3,000 a week in January is a realistic average number." You're still just juggling numbers. A typical Republican. Sorry, republican. No need to capitalize as it is not a word of honor. Nolan said that 3,000 is a minimum, 3,500 is a maximum. Use 3,250 as an honest estimate.
"Ummmmm....the profit has always been in the liquor over the food. You been living in a cardboard box? Bar charge $4 for 30 cents worth of booze, dude. " my statement was: "Darn. The profit is in the liquor, not the food. " Apparently you and I are living in the same cardboard box. Chew on that.
"Further, a single McDonald's franchise isn't capable of selling its technology to eager investors for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit per location". You're right. you just substantiated my original statement. Scroll up to the beginning: "People buy a franchise because it's a proven concept." A franchisee doesn't sell their technology, they buy it. That's what gives the franchise value. Geez. That's beyond bizarre.
"most people eat and talk while playing. I think leaving a separate full 1/2 hour per table is probably a stretch." Yeah, it may have been a stretch. But not much as it coincides with what someone who had been there and watched.
"Comes out to $14.34 per person (not ticket - and this includes kids meals and bar patrons)." May be, I don't know. But kids are not the demographic. who are we catering to? Has it changed?
"I do see franchise sales coming very soon, but then again I know that because I read the press release that specifically says it's already in the process of negotiations at various stages." Disagree. Of course, there are potential franchisees that they have entered into a discussion with, but the fact of the matter is that uWink is still changing their software, strategies, etc. I just don't see anyone buying a master agreement, much less a franchise, with this being in such disarray.
"Actually it was $185,000 and the 3250/week is CURRENT (we're in February) so we may want to use 3000/week for January, 30 days. Comes out to $14.34 per person (not ticket - and this includes kids meals and bar patrons)." Why would we want to change the numbers? You used the maximum revenue figure against the minimum customer count. What are you, a Republican?
"I also suspect that uWink gets a lot higher percentage of bar customers than those listed which tend to have smaller average tabs. I wouldn't be surprised if the average adult tab at a table per person is closer to $20 ". Darn. The profit is in the liquor, not the food.
"probably has less food costs for their checks than the Italian places or Cheesecake Factory ". Other than Mexican, probaby nothing has less food costs than Italian and Mexican.
"Average game probably takes less than a minute. Many of the games are trivia where if you get one question wrong ever.....game over. " Good point. I don't know what a "game" consists of. I have not been there, but my daughter is going to LA for spring break.
I'll have her give me a write up. And share it with you. I hope these guys make it. A new concept is what I like to be in on. Like SIRI or XMSR.
Raw: I know you don't like my view of Nolan not being willing to risk his own money on the concept. But I still think that this is too small of a company to be public at this time. Right now, it's doing about the same amount of business as a single McDonalds franchise. How many single McDonald franchises are public?
Here's what I came away with from Nolan's shareholder letter today:
The restaurant most recently had monthly revenue of $160,000 from 14,000 customers (3,250 per week x 4.3 weeks in a month). Average ticket of $11.43. I haven't been in the sit-down restuarant business, but it seems like a small ticket. RRGB generates a higher ticket, and they don't have games and the tables turn quicker. May not appeal to some franchisees. Someone here earlier wrote that they spent 3.5 hours there, and saw the tables turn approximately twice, while at full capacity. It may be because people hang around. The average customer plays 17 games (55,000 games a week / 3,250 customer). Even if the average game is only 3 minutes, that's still almost an hour of playing time, plus 30 minutes to eat and talk. So they were probably right in that the tables only turned twice in 3.5 hours.
They do offer more of a dining experience than similar restaurants. It's an interesting menu. Barbequed pork sliders and fried yucca chips are certainly more unique than a hamburger with fries. I'm not sure about their food costs compared to the hamburger and fries places. While the food may be more enticing, I'm still a little concerned about the small average ticket.
They've done a goodjob of keeping the games simple, quick and uncomplicatated. It sounds like they may be changing that strategy (Over the next several weeks we plan on rolling out the next phase in uWink game play, which will allow group competitions and tournament play). I imagine that they have some sort of a game plan to charge for the tournaments, where they will put those people, and not tie up the tables that the restaurant eating customers use.
I don't see any franchise sales coming soon. They'll want to know that the bugs have been worked out and that the business model they are buying won't be obsolete or in need of significant upgrade in six months (In the next few weeks we will be making significant changes to our ordering process to give our customers more flexibility and control over when and how their orders are are sent to the kitchen. We are also making improvements to the checkout process and plan to make noteworthy cnages to our table, chair and terminal designs in our next location). If I were buying a franchise, I'd want to wait and see how all these improvements pan out.
Lastly, "despite opening our first restaurant ina historically difficult restaurant location...". Well, that explains his lack of confidence and why he didn't want to put his own money into it.
Here's a couple:
DRJT
UWNK
ILA (almost no downside, may be dead money or 30% upside in next 30-60 days. It will be one or the other)
the signs are overdue by about a year.
We should get year end numbers about the 21st. I don't think that will say too much. What I'm interested in is their guidance going forward. I want to see how confident they are in themselves.
Stack: where is that blog from? They're adding 28 new restaurants shortly? Can't be Uwinks site.
don't know anything about fmcn. Just that until the signs are delivered, and the ads put on them, they can't book the revenue.
vegasp: yes, I was posing that question to you. Thanks for catching that. And thanks for the information.
Darren:
How many were in your party? how much did you spend? If you can, break it down by food, liquor, entertainment. What did you do for 3.5 hours? Do you think the place was full up because there were other campers such as yourself? Or did the other tables seem to turn rather regularly?
you and me both. This thing should be a 10-bagger from these levels quite easily, but they've got to deliver.