as a financial analyst, and from a totally business perspective I would agree that the decision to move forward has not been the best strategic move. It is my opinion that management should have invested their future in order to be a center of excellence for a product, or a family of concurring technologies. JAUS is obviously something that can become the basis for all unmanned systems now and in the future. Patents that are developed now could be the basis for all future growth; take the light bulb for example; not even the same invention, but GE has made a lot of money off of edison's original patent. From an analysts perspective, as i have mentioned before, the financial health of the company is atrocious. What has been shocking to me is that we haven't heard offers for a buyout from a company like abb, bombardier, general dynamics, boeing, etc... a capital investment of $100m is nothing for a company like i mentioned, but those patents are worth their weight in gold. The fact that they have had to resort to debenture bonds shows that there are not many VC's interested in backing this company... im not sure if this is because of management entrenchment, or because they don't believe in the products. also, as i have stated before; i think the intrinsic value of the company with coroware alone is worth more than the 5.5m of market capitalization according to the stock price... my bet on inra, if they cannot obtain funding that does not jeopardize shareholder value, will be scooped into someone else's organization via m&a; which i assume will ensure a tidy profit for all of us... weisel and the other execs may be betting on this too; its difficult to say. With that said, i think that coroware is the clear and obvious reason why most of us came to this company. i am one of those that thinks that robotics is the clear successor to the computer and network age, and its only a matter of time before we reach a tipping point. as i said, you see robots in mainstream media, heavy investment from the USG and other govt's, and acceptance of robots to do menial tasks (ie vaccums). of course the decision to not be present at an event like this is shameful for a company that claims to be a part of the future of robotics... the military is just the beginning of this technology, and if you get a foothold there, you will be a player in the consumer market eventually... $15m is chump change for the USG; which would easily pay off our debt, and allow us to operate in the black. In any case, i think that holding tight in the company is probably a prudent move given the conditions, and the potential of certain areas. it may be time for new leadership to usher in an era of new growth into different areas. unfortunately, being an expert for 20 years in robotics doesn't even touch the surface of the cutting edge of this emerging science... coroware gets it, i think.
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