NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[telligentbloke]

I'm amazed at how much space all you folks have spent on debating Neom QR patents code types, carriers, RFID and NFC.

The reality here is pretty simple. If patent infringement were such a big deal and represented so much potential value to Neo and YA, then why have they not sued the infringers, short of Scanbuy? And then what did they do? They signed a ten year license agreement with Scanbuy, Neo's major competitor. How smart was that?

The answer to why they are not suing the alleged infringers is that they either don't have the money or don't want to spend it on litigation without a very strong chance of prevailing. Patent attorneys are expensive and litigation even more so. The patent attorneys probably told them that the guys they might sue are no better off financially than Neo is or even worse. Neo might win and still collect nothing. A company like Google or Microsoft would be the only exception but they could bury Neo in legal fees for years. Neo management should be able to address the subject of patent lawsuits on the next investor call. All of LM's saber rattling to date is just that. If Neo's position is so strong, then sue!

As to NFC, it is not another RFID balloon. Check out: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20090016-92/visa-sets-deadlines-on-nfc-efforts/?tag=mncol;3n. and http://www.paywithisis.com/.

All the major carriers, PayPal, eBay, Google, VISA, MC, AMEX, & Discover have lined up to do NFC. This will happen because the potential revenue from mobile payments is astronomical.

Marriot's statements all try to dismiss NFC as inconsequential compared to QR. If her premise is true, then what's keeping the carriers from integrating QR readers into their phones? What has Neo done to sign up any carriers? The carriers have had years to adopt and integrate QR but haven't. What does that tell you? And the same is true for the credit card companies. Are they falling all over themselves to make QR part of their products?

All the noteable companies in the QR space, short of Microsoft are living off of investor money or loans. Would Neo be in business if YA was not putting cash in every month? I don't think so. How about the $10M Scanbuy raised earlier this year?

I don't see anyone asking on this board about how much the average QR advertiser campaign is worth to a Neo, Scanbuy or JagTag. It would be a good idea to find out how much money is being spent because if it is not at least mid to high five figures per advertiser, there is no way to sustain any of these companies. Do the math. How many ad campaigns per month do you need at what average price per campaign to hit say $3M a year in sales? At $50K each it would take 60 to hit that $3M. If the average sale is closer to $10K per moth, it would take 300. Can anyone point to 300 QR ad campaigns in one year, for the entire industry, let alone one company doing that much volume? Now go check out all the press releases from these companies to see how many clients they have announced. My guess is that any one of them would sell their Grandmother to close one deal for $50K of spend in one month.

JagTag sold out to Augme because it was impossible to sustain their business as a QR code only business. As part of Augme, JagTag becomes one more product to offer an advertiser amongst many others. Neo, ScanBuy and the others are no different. Free codes are killing all of them, no matter how much they claim they have superior products and capabilities.