To all Long Term Wave Followers
Like many of you, I have held most (not all) of my shares in Wave since the late 1990s. I have sold some shares to pay bills, some to make a little profit as it steadily dropped from $50 per shr. and sold some out of disgust over non-performance of this stock for the past 12 years plus.
While it does not matter how many shares I still hold, the fact that I have held shares in Wave for the past 15 years is testament to my belief in the vision that was laid out for us many years ago.
This vision has had plenty of time to be executed and monetized. The vision has evolved from a secure chip in hardware to software that enables better security within a chip. It has evolved from PC to desktop to tablet to any device (including mobile) at the edges of networks. While I applaud Wave's efforts to try to keep up with the evolution of the public's demand for newer and smaller devices, and the success they've had in signing nearly every major OEM during this evolution, I simply cannot explain why management would want us to believe that ubiquity across all devices must first be echieved before substantial profits can be realized.
I have enjoyed some successes in the business world. To achieve this level of success I had to monetize my ideas for my shareholders. Otherwise, my company would have lost its investors, the company would have been sold or I as a senior executive would have been replaced by the board. The thing that causes me to pause here is that none of these things have happened to Wave, or its senior leadership.
Sure, we can all blame the board for being in Steven's pocket, yet we as shareholders are the true and ultimate controllers of who is elected to the board, and who runs the company. It is we who continue to demand little, follow like ignorant sheep and continue to wait for a better tomorrow that has thus far simply not come.
So what is it that we shareholders really want? Do we want to remove Steven from his post as CEO? I personally would say No. HOWEVER, this does not mean that I could not, and should not begin to start putting some significant heat on Steven and the board to be more forthcoming. Why do I say this? Well, I have heard Steven say at least 50 times or more over these years that we are just at the beginning, and that many still need to educated. We have done this several times now with several OEMs, partners and integrators. I have listened to Steven begin almost every shareholder call by telling us how the next quarter and year will be better than the last, yet you can see our share price on your own.
Personally, I believe it is time to stop the love fest on shareholder calls. It is time to get the truth as to why 100s of prospects have shown interest, but few have bought and adopted. Wave's pipeline has been in a sales execution state now since at least 2005, and it has failed miserably at growing its customer base and revenues to anything we shareholders would consider significant. Why is that? Does anyone know? Or are we all still the naive wavoid followers we once were. We are not naive. And many of us are no longer folllowers. We are just holders of shares in a company that has underperformed.
If you truely want to see progress, then I believe we can start this process by demanding the truth. What is the state of our investment if it is not the sub-dollar value it now has. We now are facing a second round of reverse stock splits, or worse, Wave going private again at a value that is substantially less than our investments. The time for blind faith and following is over. Most of you have Steven's email-id. So start sending him messages that you are unhappy. Remind him that Wave is a public company and we have voting powers that we are prepared to use if a more honest and prioritized shareholder relationship does not begin immediately. Wave is a business like any other. we are entitled to ask tougher questions. We are entitled to know why more customers didn't buy. We are entitled to know what industry competitive technology is winning out while Wave continues to under-perform.
I don't know if many of you still even care at this point. But if you do and youu know something tangible that I don't, then please enlighten me. Why is a growing pipeline as stated by Steven continuing to erode shareholder value? Why is it (really) that few if any reasonably large companies actually turn on the security chip's full capabilities? If it's so easy to do, and it's such a great piece of software why isn't the volume of sales transactions and revenues increasing with significantly increased velocity? I do not know why personally. Perhaps you do.
I check back from time to time on this board to check the pulse of those who post most often. I want to see if their demeanor or their resolve has changed at all after all of these years. Some have. Some will never change. What has changed is that enough time has passed for Wave to be performing better. My investment in Wave should not be worth thousands or tens of thousands by now -- but rather 100s of thousands or more.
It is fun to have met and spoken with many of you. It is still fun to read your posts while only posting once or twice per year myself. But it is NOT fun seeing the same people voted into power time and again while nothing changes. For this, we have only ourselves to blame. The company will not fall apart if we send a strong message to Wave's board and its CEO. So start doing so. It's time...
