I read the call transcript on seeking alpha... it was good
for the first time you see a combo of people at the helm who both seem to know what to say (we are way away from them delivering but it is definitely a good start)
what i understood:
1. Partner for AXAL within next 3 months otherwise more cost cutting on AXAL to spend on NEO and HOT and preserve cash. I believe that we will probably get a partner soon but with not much upfront. as opposed to bourbons's 100 million, i think we will get 20 million and whatever royalties but we would get the expenditure off our back. i have for long thought that AXAL is a drag from the past and the real money was in NEO and HOT.
2. Will partner with Merck if KEYNOTE results stay good for 6-9 months more, 6 months would be in september and again ADXS and merck have access to results on a continuous basis so deal does not have to happen at 9 months it can happen anytime. i'm sure they were already in negotiations and merck probably downplayed results to make low bid deal while ADXS asked for more and since they couldn't get to an agreement they decided to go for 6-9 more months of survival data which is a double edged sword for both companies if results are good it will give ADXS leverage if results don't persist to be good then merck would have had the better deal of no deal.
3. Firing a quarter of the work force and i'm definitely not happy that people lost there job but the market is always happy with cost cutting, you see stocks across the board rise after companies cut jobs. it a bold move by any company to make such decisions, it shows that management are capable of making hard choices (when it comes to other people's jobs :) and this gives the market confidence in management. (who ever said that wall street is a bunch of nice ethical group of capitalists)
4. Focusing current resources and what they will get from the deals i mentioned in points one and two into NEO and HOT where they expect to make the big money.
The key for all the above is to be able to make two reasonable deals for AXAL and Prostate which will give us enough money to go on without any further dilution.
I think the aggressive positive talk from ken was well accepted by market
PS they might actually make 2 deals for AXAL one for cervical and one for head and neck, along with Prostate that will make 3 deals which we will likely see in the next few months.
stay tuned
