Great Bond update. I'm a fan.
Let me dive right in with an important update to LQMT, a stock of which I own a whopping 300k shares in the Long-Term E*TRADE at $.26 and 200k shares in the Swing E*TRADE at $.32.
For those who’ve followed LQMT with me, the buzz surrounding this stock swirls around the mysterious metal casing of Apple’s iPhone X. Speculation was a bit scant for some months until we recently learned more about the specifications of the iPhone X during the unveiling and release of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus this past Friday.
As far as investors of LQMT are concerned, the mystery of the iPhone X, which is scheduled for store shelves on November 3, may be akin to the mystery of the proverbial alien craft downed at Roswell in 1947. We hear that this thing is shiny, light and nearly indestructible. What is this alien thing made from? Unlike the Roswell incident, however, soon the world will know the nature of the “all-glass” iPhone X.
I’m issuing this update because when some tech hound finally puts an end to this speculation after figuring out and publishing what this far-out material actually is, LQMT may not serve anyone any good unless he’s already owned the stock. Get my meaning? Would you pay $1.0 billion for dangling the key in front of any company that opens the door to seizing market share away from competitors with just one additional feature that the competition does not offer?
Depends, right?
Companies competing in a market worth $1.0 billion may say, “Well, that’s too rich for my blood.” But, a medical device company, whose potential annual market is $398 billion (which it is) may say, “Do you want your $1.0 billion in cash or preferred stock?”
That’s where the rubber meets the road for me, and why I own so many shares of LQMT. The stock trades at a price that I believe is depressed, not because Liquidmetals is ‘on the ropes’, financially, I feel LQMT is depressed because so few traders no much about this obscure stock and the power and value of the patents the company holds in 21st century metals technologies.
When the definitive answer to the material used to make the casing of the iPhone X becomes known, manufacturing executives from lots of industries will want the same edge that Apple enjoys over Samsung. The iPhone X purportedly sports more cool stuff and features than only its space-age “amorphous alloy” construction, of course, but in very competitive consumer and commercial markets, better ‘form’ many times makes the difference between success and failure when no advantage over competitors can be forged through better ‘function. Apple is the master of both form and function, and other industry leaders are sure to follow Apple’s lead in the use of liquid metals in the production of their products.
In an article posted on Patently Apple, entitled, Apple's Liquid Metal Backside & Flexible Wraparound OLED Display for Reducing the Bezel are Patents Fulfilled, the author notes comments made by Apple’s chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, as strong evidence of Apple’s use of liquid metals in the construction of the company’s latest iPhones.
Jonathan Ive notes in the iPhone X's promotional video that “This new glass formulation, the most durable ever in a smartphone, enables for the first time, wireless charging (1:03 mark of the video).” In the iPhone X literature Apple adds that “The all-glass front and back feature the most durable glass ever in a smartphone.”
Technically a new glass formulation automatically rang a bell that this could mean the use of liquid metal which is really a forumlated metalic glass. And luckily we covered a patent to confirm that to high degree of certainty. Back in March Patently Apple posted a report titled “Apple Patent Describes using Liquid Metal (Metallic Glass) for the Backside of an iPhone.” It's extremely rare that liquid metal patents provide a specific application in a patent figure. It's usually widely generic. The patent figure below leaves no room for doubt.
After you read the entire article, yourself, you may understand why my simple response to the suggestion made here, is: I’ve already bet $118,365 that whoever wrote this article for Patently Apple is ‘spot on’. That’s right, the value of my LQMT holding is $118,365 in one account and another $78,910 in another.
Apple must be using liquid metals as the casing of its latest iPhones. Who else is capable of being first to use this mysterious metal? And who else has been paying millions of dollars to Liquidmetals almost every year for what seems like every new patent the company submits to the US Patent and Trademark Office? It’s Apple, and only Apple.
You see, Apple approached Liquidmetals more than five years ago and plucked down approximately $12 million for exclusive patent rights to Liquidmetals’ patents, which are only to be used within the consumer electronics market. No, you read that correctly. The amount Apple paid to Liquidmetals was only $12 million.
Apple almost, literally, stole that exclusive right from the previous management of Liquidmetal, who were obviously too desperate to hold out for much, much more. In hindsight, everyone knows that, now. Apple thinks ahead by five years, at least, and is about to be rewarded for making such a killer deal with Liquidmetals back in 2010.
But now that Apple is on the verge of ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ as to the composition of this mysterious and leading-edge metal by unveiling the iPhone X on Nov. 3, who will be the next behemoth to approach Liquidmetals to strike a deal? And does anyone think the next deal will be in the $10-million range? Of course, not.
The new CEO and majority stockholder, Professor Lugee Li of Hong Kong’s DongGuan Eontec Co., Ltd., invested $54 million to buy Liquidmetals in December. The timing and confidence shown by Professor Li in Liquidmetals’ patents and position the company holds in this new and dynamic amorphous metals market pushed me right into this trade with a purchase of 500,000 shares. Any time a senior executive puts real money where his mouth is, in this case $54 million, gets my money.
And Professor Li has already made me $100,000 since I pulled the trigger with my purchase of the stock on Dec. 16. And I feel there is lots of upside left. Actually, my heart tells me this could be my best trade of my career. We’ll know soon enough.
My initial target price for LQMT is $0.75 in the Long-Term E*TRADE and $.50+ in the Swing E*TRADE
