Kijfish, I'll respond briefly to your message, as you list most of the factors that are on our minds as IMSC shareholders. You ask: "Which announcement are you referring to" then list them:
Buyout. There is no buyout. We anticipate a buyout, but there are no guarantees.
Refinancing: There is no refinancing. Potential financiers who could have replaced Platinum over the years obviously passed. Yes, sales have improved dramatically over the past year, but still, no one stepped up and bought out Platinum's position. What do sophisticated investors with large due diligence staffs see that we don't?
CATSA: This is nice, but small potatoes. It's $2 million. TSA and other government agencies hand them out frequently. In this case the grant apparently is for the long talked of new handheld. Long talked of, but non-existent.
Licensing agreement: Sorry, I missed that one. Who has licensed Implant's technology (L-3's Australia B-220 demo doesn't count as licensing.)?
New Product Launch: I missed that one too. If you mean software upgrades to the B-220, that's a plus, but standard practice and doesn't qualify as a new product.
Another multi-million dollar order or two: Missed those too. Implant had some good orders in Europe nine months ago, and a great one in France (500+ units). But lately? Don't hear much. I also suspect, looking at the last few quarterly financial reports, that they were barely profitable, if that.
A bomb threat stopped by B-220: Missed that, but wonderful if it happened, and was effectively publicized (which I doubt).
TSA Delivery: Here's where I think of the old joke "We lose money on every unit we sell, but we're making it up on volume." It's amazing to me that so many on the board ignore the fact that IMSC is an organization that does not and never has made a penney, fabulous intellectual property or not. It's as though we ignore the basic law of business -- profit or die.
Profitable quarter: Missed another one. The company lost almost a million dollars in Q3. The report was for "adjusted EBITDA", which is a very questionable number when interest is probably the company's biggest expense. Huh?!
New government grant for R&D: Isn't that Catsa? If not, I'm unaware of it.
Another Patent: There was a patent announced a year or so ago as I recall, It may be a good patent, but it's a patent, not a product -- every company has patents, tons of them. Some become products, some remain patents, some are licenced. It's nice IMSC has something like 17 patents, but really, what's the significance? I'm not downplaying them, just wondering what they mean in the real world.
Biggest drug bust in history thanks to IMSC tech: I missed another story, and I read the Times, the Journal and Security publications. Please enlighten me and tell me where the story appeared and who read it.
Kijfish, I am not trying to break your balls. I just find that instead of rigorous analysis of Implant's situation -- unprofitable literally forever, huge debt growing each quarter, margins thin and shrinking, no interest from alternative investors, larger, better capitalized competitors, basically a niche player in an important but niche market, etc. --we get sound bites (intellectual property; don't give this company away; your list of "announcements.") I mean, some people on the board live in a fantasy world: Percy's $550 million valuation, for example, is insane (and where is Percy these days?) As I said in my original post, if companies much healthier than IMSC -- American Science & Engineering, Morpho Detection -- with significantly higher sales and revenue, more patents, better infrastructure, higher margins, minimum debt etc. -- -- command 2x or a little more in an acquisition, why would any company, with tough M&A experts doing due diligence -- pay 2x revenue for crippled Implant? They won't. And please, don't start the incantations -- intellectual property, intellectual property, IP. All companies, including the ones just mentioned, have valued intellectual property. It's important, but a factor, along with many others when considering an acquisition. I believe Implant will, as I said, be fortunate to be sold for 1x revenue, for all the reasons I enumerated. You can continue hoping it will be 4x or 6x or Percy's 11x, but as I learned, Hope is not a Plan.
