I think many more on this board share this attitude than many would think. We all thought this was a good investment. Slowly, we have found that this investment has not turned out the way we'd hoped. That's not to say that it couldn't still, only that it hasn't yet!
From a purely investment perspective, I have heard Steven say (more times than I'd care to hear now) almost every quarter since early 2002 that (paraphrasing) things couldn't be better for Wave than they are currently, and that things are just now beginning to happen. The problem with these statements (again, from an investment perspective) is that while they may not be inaccurate, they are a bit misleading. For example:
If you're talking about the formation of the earth, then statements like those mentioned above are somewhat factual, because it took millions of years for the earth to evolve into what it has become, and each quarter it probably progressed to a point that was better than the previous quarter. And, depending on the relativity of time, the first few million quarters were realistically a time when things were just beginning to happen.
The problem with the correlation here is, that we have no timeline or guidance from Steven by which to measure the importance of such statements. And, I believe that we've all started to see that whatever timeline Steven is actually on, it certainly has exceeded any that I, as an investor, might have imagined. Those on this board that would argue this point are either kidding themselves, or simply trying to maintain their sanity over how much they've sunk into this investment.
As the CEO, Steven's honeymoon has now ended. He needs to begin to set clear expectations and direction for this company, and then work to meet them. This open-ended agenda that always appears to rely on, or be excused by any number of imaginable industry factors has to stop. If I possessed the ability for 'Total Recall', I know (I don't think - I know) that I could draw on several occasions over the past several years where Steven has agreed that:
1. Revenues must begin to flow (I think this was 2003)
2. Doubling of revenues every quarter is appropriate for investors to expect at this point. (Early-mid 2004)
3. Guidance might be a quarter or two away yet, but certainly not 9 - 10 quarters away, and still no guidance being offered. (Late 2003 Annual Meeting)
4. Shipments should be in the thousands now to the 10s of thousands by years-end, followed by millions of shipments in the coming year, building to 100s of millions over the following 12-18 months. This was quickly adjusted by Steven saying that we were running about a quarter to two behind. Well, even so, the time for millions of shipments is still at hand, which should be yielding more revenue than is being reported (thus far). In short, this timeline is now off now too.
Instead of punding Wave, I think that everyone gets the point. What is it that we can count on? What are realistic expectations? Why are we still under a buck in 2005, and when are we going to move the needle on revenues. Let's face it everyone, if the orders were coming in, Wave would know these answers already, and should share them. What possible reason other than reality being different than what we've been told in the past could there be?
T
AI
