Orckit investors wait for new customer
Orckit CFO Aviv Boim: We’re in a good position for a win.
Gitit Pincas 16 Jul 07 19:15
Orckit Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: ORCT; TASE: ORCT) investors have been waiting for a new customer for a long time. The technology of subsidiary Corrigent Systems Ltd. has been undergoing trials by customers in Asia and elsewhere, but so far, all that the company has to show for them is a large contract with KDDI Corp (TSE: 9433), Japan’s second largest carrier. While certainly boosting Orckit’s results in past quarters, it’s not enough to consider Orckit a growth company that will deliver the goods.
Investors’ hopes for more contracts were raised by comments by Orckit executives during a conference call in May. Orckit president Itzhak Tamir and CFO Aviv Boim said that, by the end of June, one of the company’s potential customers in Asia would decide whether to buy Corrigent’s systems or not. They let it be understood that the customer had to reach a decision. However, June has come and gone and July is more than half over, and Orckit has made no official statement regarding the ostensible postponement of the decision.
Boim is due to leave Orckit soon. At a presentation last week at an emerging growth conference by CE Unterberg, Towbin in New York, he said, “We’re still involved in the process in Asia. Regrettably, for various reasons, the decision has been postponed. We still believe that it will be taken within the coming month or thereabouts, and sometime during the third quarter in any event. We’re in a good position for a win there.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 16, 2007
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