Applied Blockchain Inc (APLD)

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Long post about $APLD (Applied Science Products, Inc.) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Advanced Plasma Products, Inc. I also assembled background information on APLD’s new President as of 02/12/2021, Wes Cummins, who in addition to being on APLD’s Board of Directors since 2007, is currently on the board of directors of three NYSE and NASDAQ companies with market caps ranging from $229M to $467M as of this writing. Cummins also heads his own investment firm, 272 Capital LP, which has $88.8M under management. Notably, I found that both APLD and its wholly-owned subsidiary Advanced Plasma Products have CAGE Codes for doing business with the U.S. Government/military agencies. I’m also including some patent information for the precursor company, Flight Safety Technologies Inc., which holds a huge number of patents, though I was unable to corroborate whether or not Flight Safety Technologies’ patents are still held under the APLD umbrella—they may or may not be. Those are the big points of interest: read on for more details.

The basics: officers, share structure, recent filings and records:
Per NVSOS, Wes Cummins replaced Barbara Bauman as APLD President, Secretary, Director, and Treasurer on Feb. 12, 2021. This has been a Bauman custodianship since Nov. 25, 2020, and prior to that had not filed anything with the SEC since 2011.



Interestingly, our new President Wes Cummins has been on the Board of Directors of APLD since 2007, and from what I can find has owned a controlling stake in APLD via his preferred and common stock since around 2009. I found filings showing Cummins owned APLD stock options as far back as 2007, and he may have owned stock prior to that—I didn’t look at every old APLD filing (there are A LOT of them). Anyway, with Cummins being a longtime shareholder and director, it presents the possibility that the business of APLD/Advanced Plasma Solutions could be revived, though it’s also possible Cummins may want the ticker for a completely different purpose. For this reason, I’ll focus first on the share structure and custodian process, and then Cummins, who’s the known quantity here at this juncture.

APLD is currently a micro-float stock with just 7.7M unrestricted shares and a market cap of $1.54M as of Feb. 16, 2021. Notably, there’s no destructive reverse split history with this stock, which is almost unheard of for a decades-old OTC company with such a small float. There was just one reverse split with a modest 1:3 ratio in 2003. And clearly, with a float and market cap this small, there’s no history of excessive dilution.

APLD: Pink, no information.
Share structure as of Feb. 12, 2021
Outstanding shares: 9,102,659
Restricted: 1,398,786
Unrestricted: 7,703,873
Held at DTC: 7,556,491
Authorized shares: 150M



Recent filings/records:
NVSOS Amended List showing Cummins in officer positions 2/12/2021
8-K filed with SEC announcing Barbara Bauman custodianship 12/22/2020
Certificate of Reinstatement & Certificate of Amendment filed at NVSOS 12/3/2020
Clark County Courts case# A-20-823562-P
Most recent Clark County Courts record: 1/7/2021
Next Clark County Courts date: Status Check - filing of Custodian’s Quarterly Report 2/24/2021

About Wes Cummins: President/Director/Secretary/Treasurer of APLD:
From all I could find, Wesley Theta Carl Cummins has a great reputation and track record, and he’s on the Board of Directors of three companies with market caps of $229M, $274M, and $467M respectively: Telenav (NASDAQ), Sequans Communication (NYSE), and Vishay Precision Group (NYSE). Here’s some brief info about those companies, just to give an idea of Cummins’ connections to NYSE and NASDAQ companies and perhaps some clues as to where Cummins’ interests/expertise might lie.

Telenav (NASDAQ: TNAV, $229M market cap): among the first to bring GPS navigation to mobile phones, almost twenty million vehicles equipped with its navigation systems on the road, ten million of which are connected cars. https://www.telenav.com

Sequans Communication (NYSE: SQNS, $274M market cap): a leading developer and provider of 5G and 4G chips and modules for IoT devices. https://www.sequans.com

Vishay Precision Group Inc (NYSE: VPG, $467M market cap): internationally recognized designer, manufacturer and marketer of resistive foil technology, sensors, and sensor-based systems to niche, industrial applications including medical, agricultural, transportation, avionics, military, and space. https://vpgsensors.com

Here are bios for Cummins at TNAV and SQNS:





Here’s Cummins’ Wallmine bio:



Of course, being on the Board of Directors of the aforementioned companies is tangential information and doesn’t tell us anything specific about APLD. But imo there must be something about Cummins’ qualifications and areas of expertise that brought him to those Director positions, and it’s always good to have a formidable and successful businessman at the helm.

Just to be thorough, here’s a 13-D from 2009 showing Cummins’ ownership of APLD preferred and common stock: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1144879/000114487909000006/schedule13d.htm

There have been no subsequent SEC filings that I could find about his ownership stake changing, and he seems to be meticulous about SEC filings related to his ownership/voting power, so imo it’s safe to assume Cummins is still the majority owner of APLD’s preferred stock/voting rights, and presumably he also still owns some common shares. The presumable fact that Cummins is the majority stakeholder tracks with him taking over as President etc.

Next, here’s a relevant screencap from a 2009 10-Q, which among other business discussed APLD’s (at the time “Flight Safety Technologies”) acquisition of Advanced Plasma Products, Inc. ("APP”), Wes Cummins being a director of APLD at that time, and Cummins’ majority voting stake in the company.



Cummins has not ever to my knowledge converted any of his preferred stock (which is part of his ‘control bloc’), but were he to do so, .07 per share isn’t bad for retail shareholders compared to the usual pink sheets scenario in which preferred stock is often convertible in the trips or teens.

Aside from patents, I didn’t research APLD much prior to 2009 when the company was Flight Safety Technology, Inc. But briefly, it used to be listed on AMEX as “FLT” and was delisted in 2008 and traded on the OTCs due to the market cap falling under $4M along with losses for three out of four years. Subsequently, around the same general 2008-2009 timeframe that the company acquired Advanced Plasma Products Inc., it also acquired the Cummins Family potato packaging company, which is how Cummins came to hold a controlling interest in APLD stock. None of this minutia seems terribly relevant a dozen years later, but I thought I’d mention it since I found it.

Returning to 2021, Cummins now has his own investment firm, 272 Capital LP. AUM13f.com lists its total assets under management as $88.8M: https://aum13f.com/firm/272-capital-lp



And you can see 272 Capital’s SEC filings related to holdings that may be construed as beneficial here: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1391935/000090266421000985/0000902664-21-000985-index.htm

272 Capital was in the press a couple weeks ago: along with another company, 272 Capital is a major shareholder of Tile Shop Holdings, Inc. (OTCMKTS: TTSH, $373M market cap), and they called on TTSH to uplist to a major exchange. Imo, this kind of investor activism and desire to uplist is a good trait for the president of APLD to have.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210128005802/en/272-Capital-and-B.-Riley-Financial-Issue-Joint-Letter-to-Tile-Shop-Holdings-Board-of-Directors

That’s a pretty good discussion of Cummins. Again, what becomes of APLD going forward hasn’t been disclosed (and might not be known yet) by Cummins. But as President etc. of APLD, Cummins the primary “known known” in the APLD equation for now, along with the share structure.

As for APLD as a company, I can’t find anything more recent than 2016 indicating the business was active, but it was an interesting company. Here’s the company description:

“Applied Science Products, Inc., through its subsidiary, Advanced Plasma Products, Inc., focuses on developing and commercializing a range of products based upon the patented one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma (OAUGDP) technology. The OAUGDP is a technology that allows the production of plasma in air at atmospheric conditions with very low power input and no requirement for vacuum equipment. The company principally offers the TriClean Pro, an air purification product that filters and destroys airborne contaminants, such as bacteria, viruses, allergens mold spores, and odors; and is used in hospitals, assisted living facilities, doctor's offices, athletic facilities, day care centers, hotels, and office buildings. Its products under development include air purification products, disinfection products, medical instrument sterilizers, flow control actuators, and medical waste disinfection products. The company was formerly known as Flight Safety Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Science Products, Inc. in December 2009. Applied Science Products, Inc. is based in Knoxville, Tennessee.”

Advanced Plasma Products was developing plasma-related products based on One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP®), which was developed by UTK Plasma Sciences Laboratory and is proprietary to the University of Tennessee. From the April 13, 2009 10-Q: “Advanced Plasma Products, Inc. (APP): APP has exclusive proprietary rights to a series of patents relating to One Atmospheric Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP®) technology, and the rights to develop products and capabilities based upon this technology. APP's OAUGDP® is a technology that electrically breaks down air creating highly reactive chemical species. This resultant unique plasma-generated chemistry is then used to produce desired outcomes such as alteration of material properties, destruction of microorganisms, and destruction of odor-causing chemicals. The Company is currently developing commercial products utilizing this technology as well as pursuing certain research and development projects and accordingly includes revenues from previous research and development contracts.”

By the way, don’t confuse Advanced Plasma Products with “Advanced Plasma Solutions,” which is an entirely different and unrelated company.

While APLD’s self-described focus is a big point of interest, there’s no record I can find of it being active since 2016. We can’t assume the company is being revived—it’s possible, but at this juncture there’s no way to predict what Cummins has planned for APLD, and it’s very possible that he’s treating APLD as a shell company.

Regardless of the business plan, it’s notable that APLD has a CAGE Code for doing business with the U.S. Government: https://cage.report/CAGE/3LQZ2



And here’s the CAGE code information for wholly owned subsidiary Advanced Plasma Products, Inc.:




I also found that Advanced Plasma Products was awarded government grant money totaling $2.9M through 2014, so it may still be in the system for government grants:





Applied Science Products, Inc. Announces Award of Two Phase 1 Research Grants
https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/applied-science-products-inc-announces-award-of-two-phase-1-research-grants-/

The legacy company, Flight Safety Technologies Inc., has A LOT of patents. I have no idea how relevant these patents are so many years later or whether they may even be in use generating royalties. Also, I couldn’t determine definitively whether the patents still ‘belong’ to APLD at this point, or if they belong to the former executives/officers of APLD. This is one of the pitfalls of researching a company that hasn’t reported in so long. So I’m just providing this information for whatever it’s worth. I also have no science or aviation background and can’t begin to understand what any of these patents mean.













Here’s an article showing the former APLD execs/officers when the company was known as “Flight Safety Technologies” under the symbol “FLT”: it’s easy to match up the names here with the above patents, so they did indeed belong to *this* Flight Safety Technologies.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1144879/000114487907000032/fst_ex99-1.htm

It’s been a while since APLD or Advanced Plasma had news, but here are a couple of links to PRs about Advanced Plasma Products, Inc.:

Aug 29, 2016: Advanced Plasma Products, Inc. Announces Further Development of Its Atmospheric Plasma Wound Treatment Device
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advanced-plasma-products-inc-announces-further-development-of-its-atmospheric-plasma-wound-treatment-device-300319524.html

Nov 18, 2014: Advanced Plasma Products, Inc. Announces Receipt of Second Year SBIR Funding :
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advanced-plasma-products-inc-announces-receipt-of-second-year-sbir-funding-283057341.html

Summary:
This has been a Bauman custodianship for a few months, and Wes Cummins was just appointed President, Directory, Secretary, and Treasurer of APLD last week. He’s a longtime director of the company and from all indications the majority stakeholder in APLD via preferred and common stock. Cummins is on the Board of Directors of three NYSE and NASDAQ companies with market caps in the hundreds of millions each, and he owns his own investment firm with assets under management of $88.8M.

It's noteworthy but, of course, not necessarily predictive that another Bauman microfloat custodianship (WIN*) with 3x the OS of APLD has a $50M market cap right now - custodianship was just terminated for that one.

APLD’s legacy companies may have interesting intellectual property/patents. APLD and its wholly-owned subsidiary Advanced Plasma Products, Inc. both have CAGE codes for doing business with the federal government, and imo that adds value to the company even as a shell.

Again, we don’t yet know if Cummins intends to revive the Advanced Plasma Products business, or if he intends to bring in a new business—or a combination thereof. Imo, any of the above would be a positive development for the company.

Disclaimer: None of this should be construed as a buy, sell, or hold recommendation—I have no opinion about whether anyone else should trade this stock. Some of the above may be out-of-date, as it’s impossible to reconstruct complete business information of non-reporting companies. Cummins’ involvement is no guarantee that this will be a good investment/trade. I have no idea if the pps will go up or down and I’m not a financial advisor, professional trader, or stock promoter. All OTC stocks are risky, custodianship plays are especially risky, and there’s no guarantee that custodianship plays will work out well for existing shareholders. I won’t make predictions about the stock price and never advise anyone on when to buy, sell, or hold. Please be responsible for your own trading decisions.

All my opinion only as always…
H