FWIW/FYI...My email to Tyler Burns. (jtdiii)
To Tyler Burns..
I have been a "substantial" WiLAN (WILN:Nasdaq) Investor since early May 2011. One of the more positive and noteworthy informal conference calls by Jim Skippen occurred back in August of 2011 at The Cannacord Conference...
Please feel free to compare the actual transcript with my summations below, but I feel reasonably confident that the following ten (10) points Jim Skippen made on the conference call are "directionally" accurate.
(1)...Our patent portfolio has been cherry picked, we only get the wheat and not the chaff.
(2)...We have a much larger % usage of valuable patents in the portfolio than is typical
(3)...We have exactly as many good patents as you would find in the average portfolio.
(4)...Our deepest and strongest portfolio for essential patents is 4G/LTE. We looked closely at the Nortel patents and we have more than twice as many 4G patents as Nortel did.
(5)...We have more than 10 "patent families" that are essential to practicing LTE.
(6)...Future growth is coming from 4G in the future and we haven't even started deploying the patents.
(7)...We've been given advice about selling the LTE like IDCC is doing, but we haven't been talking much about it been keeping it quiet and building up the portfolio.
(8)...There are many licensing programs that we believe we can layer on our current revenue.
(9)...We are very excited about prospects in the LTE space, we have never had such a powerful portfolio.
(10)...If we could license the patents that we are trying to license right now for the typical royalties, we would have $1.3B in additional revenue that we can generate incrementally over what we've got, and it will continue to grow revenue steadily
Tyler, I am painfully aware of both the share price and P/E erosion since that wonderful day in August (just 6 months ago), and I am not emailing you to belabor the disastrous (yet hopefully temporary) consequences of the Mosaid takeover and the LG setback.
That said, I have a number of reasonable questions to which I would greatly appreciate thoughtful answers.
(A)... What response do you have to the above "declarations" that Mr. Skippen made last August ( at The Cannacord Conference) ?
(B) ...Obviously, WiLAN is "grossly underachieving" it's own patent "peer group" in terms of P/E ratio..To what do you attribute this?
(C)...It has been my own personal observation that the level of questions posed to Mr. Skippen by Analysts attending the latest WiLAN Earnings Conference Calls could be characterized as "enabling milquetoast softballs", based on my frequent monitoring of earnings conference calls of other public companies. To what do you attribute this?
(D)...In Mr. Skippen's latest public speaking engagement, he began to characterize WiLAN's future revenues as "lumpy", a term that he "used to use" in characterizing the revenue model of others in our peer group. What explanation do you give for this change in attitude?
(E)...It has been over a year now since WiLAN has announced a major settlement, and the shareholders' anticipation of the Nokia renewal is now beginning to "grow hair on it". Since the Nokia agreement expired on 12/31/2011(?), what comments do you have as to the reasons for this delay. Isn't such a delay a "material event"?
(F)...With the latest revelations in the "White Space" arena, why hasn't WiLAN's IR/PR entities taken a more proactive role in informing the public of WiLAN's anticipated participation in this critically important area?
(G)...The recent dearth of volume (together with the eroding share price) would indicate that the upcoming earnings conference call will be a dismal one. That said, the analysts covering WiLAN continue to project aggressive targets for the shareprice. Although the price targets have been mitigated somewhat of late, the targets are "still" substantially above the current share price. How do you explain the obvious disconnect between the retail shareholders' "unrest" with the ongoing positive outlooks of the analysts?
(H)...How do you access WiLAN's threshold for determining the measure of a "material event" with those of other public companies in WiLAN's peer group? Given that WiLAN hasn't announced any settlements in over a year, it is becoming difficult for a "rational" investor to fathom that there has been a complete absence of settlements regardless of their scope.
(I)...WiLAN's recent filing in Florida against RIM seemed long overdue. Was this accelerated due to RIM's recent BOD/Management changes?
(J)...Please comment on the genesis of WiLAN USA, and for what specific purpose was this development initiated?
(K)...How do you explain the recent downward pressure on the share price?
Tyler, I could easily come up with more questions, many of which you would be unable and/or unwilling to answer. I also realize that the above (A-K) questions may also fall into that category.
I'm reasonably certain that the upcoming "dividend increase announcement" has already been baked into the shareprice. If that topic proves to be "the best part" of the conference call, then the shareprice will continue it's downward pressure....
There are numerous retail shareholders who have been WiLAN investors for a far longer period than myself. I can't begin to imagine their justifiable angst. Given that the retail investor is still the dominant aggregate shareholder, the mood has evolved into the "pitchforks and torches" stage.
WiLAN would appear to have just about everything going for it...(1) a constant guaranteed income, (2) $200 million in cash, (3) No debt , (4) A remarkably high employee to revenue ratio, (5) A low P/E ratio (6) Canada'a CEO of the Year , and most importantly (7)...the above ten (10) "quotes" from WiLAN CEO Jim Skippen at The Cannacord Conference last August....
Tyler, it's time for WiLAN to walk the walk. The silence is deafening. I remain hopeful that WiLAN's recent BOD "Strategy Session" will result in some forthcoming positive news.
At your earliest convenience, please respond via email and/or phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX
Best Regards
XXXX XXXXXX (jtdiii)
AI
