Titan mentioned that the "customer" wanted to see them get more indications for SPORT. It is possible that the "customer" could be a big company (insert company here: J&J, Covidien, ISRG etc) that expressed interest in acquiring Titan but couldn't justify their asking price b/c they had a product indicated for a market that did 450k procedures/year. Titan realizes that bringing SPORT out as is will be a tough sell either for a buyout or going it alone (who will want to buy a system that handles one procedure). They collect this info thru Bertner's discussions with big companies and the SAB's feedback regarding the market conditions of their facilities (and their colleagues). It's decided to pull back on commercializing as is and instead use the $37M in cash to enhance SPORT, increase its indications and go after a market of 4 million procedures. They will burn thru $28M by end of 2015 but it should be enough to get SPORT indicated for the other procedures and make them much more attractive for buyout. I've never believed they would or could go it alone (their management team doesn't strike me as the type) and I don't believe they will go it alone now. IMO, I believe this is all done to ultimately make SPORT a viable robotics platform to compete for the growing robotics market dollars and ultimately sell. 2015 is still a big year b/c if they don't hit their Q1 milestone and fall behind on gaining add'l indications, they burn thru cash and have to raise more money, potentially diluting the stock again. I'm long and believe in this product b/c the market is begging for another robotics platform (and not just one more player, probably 3-4 more in the next 2-3 years which the market can handle anyway) but I am with most of you about how the management has to do a better job of communicating with their stakeholders.
