Forgive me if any questions posed have been answered, I've actually followed this board and company for around a year now, but don't recall. Secondly, before I post, I have to say that this is probably one of the best boards I've come across from an information standpoint. There are some really intelligent questions and answers posted.
I hear a lot of focus on Apple. I believe there's a long term benefit, if management plays it right and understand WWDC is going on right now, but it's not my main focus. The current benefits I see Apple bringing to the table are:
1. Marketing
2. It would answer what a company with the resources was able to do with the technology from a quality and delivery perspective
3. New base for the stock
To date we know of one machine at Visser that could crank out around 12,000 widgets a month at full capacity by my gross calculations.
In light of recent events, the 3 potential customers mean more to me.
First, was the fact Steipp stated they wanted to be in production with in 3 months or a quarter on the earnings call. That call was on May 15th which puts them in production by August 15th.
Second, Visser drops $5mil, debt gets paid off and Visser signs up for the long haul. That's a good sign!
Third was the timing of the insiders exercising options on Friday.
I work in the aerospace and electronics field and I can tell you it wouldn't take me more than 6 weeks to evaluate the metal from a mechanical standpoint. From an electrical standpoint, my typical lead time for materials is 6 weeks and through the factory is another 10 weeks totaling 16 weeks. If these prototypes were delivered in mid-December, we're talking about completing the evaluations last week.
I'm gathering that with evaluations just completing and in order to be in production by August,we would need a purchase order or three any day.
What is the lead time from Materion to Visser?
Is this why the options were exercized?
How big is the potential of these 3 customers?
Is this why Visser just dropped $5mil?
As Watts questioned, why have the other 2 partnership agreements not been made public? What is disclosed in them that is keeping them private?
I also listened in on the last Materion earnings and I believe they had a pick-up in comercial electronics. Can someone confirm and do you recall the dollar amount if so?
Does anyone know the raw material cost?
I also have to believe, there will be news before the ASHM or Stiepp will be stepping in front of a firing squad. In the same breath, it appears to me they are executing their strategic objectives to plan going from the presentation that Watts has posted in the past, so I don't have a negative view.
I would be surprised if we see more than a 1 year buy, but hopefully we learn of forecasted sales and these customers are not one offs. I would find it hard to believe they would take the latter path.
I have a feeling there is some very good news on the horizon for all of us! I have been continuing to increase my long position, today by 65,000 at .3075. Good luck to all the longs on here! At times it feels like I'm reading a Sherlock Holmes mystery, but at the same time there is some good intelligence that goes into these posts. I hope pays off for all of us.
AI
