Replies to post #7895 on Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (MARA)

[yanquitrader]

justnkz ~

I give management a nod for having heard the need for communication and making a effort to respond. However, I found the PR piece pretty modest. Nothing much there we didn't already know. As one poster stated on twitter - essentially just a letter to shareholders asking them to be patient.

What bothers me is that there was more information in the latest Northland analysis than in this letter to shareholders. Why does Northland know that the GE patents have '8-figure potential' for at least 10 separate companies? Why is Marathon able to disclose info like this to them - which they then publicly disclose - but not directly to us?

Management continues to tout the number of patents they have - and the number is indeed impressive. But honestly, it's not very helpful. How many of them are presently being infringed? How many companies infringe on them and how big are those companies? How important are the patents to their business? 10,000 patents that no-one infringes is of no particular interest - so the number alone tells us little.

I'm also quite skeptical of the statement that the company 'expects' to receive more revenue this year than last. There is no teeth to that statement and, honestly, there is no visibility as to how they might get there - so I'd be wary there. There's only one suit, that I know of, with a 2017 court date. The suits just filed in Germany should at least get the 'is infringing' part of their suit heard by late this year - things move faster in Germany - but they have to be relying on obtaining significant negotiated licensing this year to come anywhere close to 2016 revenue. Absent that, we're looking into 2018 for any significant revenue from our portfolio. And i don't know how they can forecast negotiation success?

I *am* encouraged by their recent filings. They were smart to go first with the SEP patents as they are probably the strongest they have. Not sure of the present value of the IOT patents although those should grow nicely over the next few years. And the lack of GE suits puzzles me - but suggests perhaps they feel they are close to some agreements there. No inside info here - just speculation based on the lack of filings (a natural optimist, I am).

Clearly management could give us more information (e.g. Northland) and that frustrates me. And yes, based on past statements, I'm very leary of statements of significant revenue being achieved this year. But I'm also comfortable that we are worth well north of where we are now trading. With some significant effort, 2018 should be a year that will justify our time, our financial commitments and our interim anxieties.

~ yanqui