Here is a bit of a summary of the meeting.
Only one other investor asked questions . She appeared to be a familiar person to most in the room, most of whom appeared to be employed by Sigma.
While I was hoping that Mark would be at the meeting, he is in Europe. Thus I was not able to ask him directly if he was sticking with his nearly year old prediction that PR3D would gain traction in "12 to 18" months (thus now tô now plus 6 months), however John Rice was there...and he refused to quantify his term of "near future" given in the interview recently published and posted to this board. John is a man who is very very careful and not prone to offer specifics when generalities that allow plausible deniability will suffice. I take that as the general operating procedures for someone in his position. I did not get the impression that he was being overly squirmy. I got the impression that he is far more concerned with business values than Mark had been. I believe that it was John who pushed against a merger with Morf for business reasons.
The AmericaMakes report was dealt with as having been based upon two year old data. Statements were made to the effect that newer data does exist which is far more favorable to Sigma, but that this data has been produced and collected working with two companies....but....is restricted data due to NDA's and Sigma does not have permission to disclose at the current time. I asked about Sigma developing data in house using their machine and it appears that they would like to do this, but no language was offered suggesting that they were actually engaged in producing such data. No concrete method of disseminating potentially more positive data when it becomes available was indicated. John indicated that the nondisclosable data strongly supports the utility of PrintRite.
The relationship with Morf3d and Jaguar can be characterized as a strategic alliance. There appeared to be some concerns that if Sigma were to acquire or merge with Morf then it might increase resistance amongst other contract printing companies to PR3D and that Sigma would prefer to not increase the threshold resistance of these companies to becoming customers of Sigma. I got the feeling that there is no longer interest in a merger or acquisition although Sigma wants to have a strong alliance with Morf. Thus, lower probability of dilution of shareholder value from that one.
As yet, no installation of PR3D at Morf, nor was there a willingness to disclose when PR3D might be installed there (or if it would a single or multiple installations). John did indicate that in the recent past they were preparing to install there, but that another installation took priority. After the meeting I spoke with one of the technician/engineers who indicated to me that his installation-verification & initial training is a one week deal, so I am left wondering how it is that the installation at Morf could not be completed...the engineer was unwilling to say anything more than what exactly came out of his work, not sales, not anything more than what he actually did.
Adoption of AM for production is seen as being slowed by incomplete understanding and control of internal machine processes (such as atmospheric variability within the build chamber) as well as a lack of standards. Reference was made to how Sigma is involved in the development of standards in cooperation with various companies (such as Aerojet) and agencies.
John indicated that the margins for contract printing were shrinking and that Sigma is taking a stronger focus on software rather than contract printing. This appears to apply equally to the Morf issue as well as the development of an in house contract printing aspect. My impression was that Sigma is going to live with the machine they have and maybe one more, not the three more that had been indicated before.
GE - there appears to be a lot of distance between Sigma and GE. It was suggested that Sigma and GE are yet to determine if there will be future cooperation or a patent fight. John and Amanda appeared to be confident that the patent technology is clearly Sigma's .... but that does not mean that a fight may not happen. John expressed great confidence in the legal representation (sorry that I forget the firm name). Seems to me unlikely that GE will be the first to order multiple PR3D installations, but that is not news.
General vibe is that companies like Aerojet, Siemens and Honeywell are working well with Sigma and that they are positive. Some mentions of OEM opportunities, but again very limited naming of names and an unwillingness to offer timeframes.
Some concerns were raised as to the possibility of theft of IP - particularly in reference to China. John indicated that the possibility exists, yet he relied upon the algorithms as being where the value is, not in the data collection. Stated also that the potential size of the market there is too great to avoid the market.
I seem to recall that in one of the pr's of about a year ago that some of the money raised was earmarked for stock repurchase to support price, but this was denied by Amanda. I will have to go back to earlier pr's and maybe ER transcripts to find this (if it exists outside my memory) - if anyone recalls, please confirm.
These are just quick impressions and recollections. I retain the right to change my mind after letting this bounce around my thoughts for a day or two. Hope it helps.
as always,
patience and GLTA
