For those not following along last week, take a look at the old posts. You will see that we have established that Medtronic is most likely involved. I believe they have always been on the sidelines and milestones had to be hit to really set the plan in motion. Remember, this is not an implant or drug where studies need to be done that take up to 2years to determine if it works or not. If Sport is going to work and compete against ISRG -that would have been determined in the animal studies. The doctors would be able to tell immediately if Sport is a winner or a POS. IMO- Medtronic saw that it works. Hitting that milestone caused them to put Zaring in place. They will fund the rest of the project with the right to buy. They have done this with multiple other companies. The buyout number is in place. That may occur when human studies are completed. Again, since this is not an implant, they will have immediate feedback- does it work or not. If it works, there is no doubt they will get fda approval. It will just be paperwork at that point. If it doesn’t, then it would be 30-35 million lost instead of billions. Look back at JNJ 2006 purchase of Conor Med before they had FDA approval.
So why doesn’t PPS rise? Because Mc can go and present until he is blue in the face and what analyst/firm is going to invest on speculation? They feel we need FDA approval and then invest. They are playing this by the book. That this will be like every other buyout. FDA approval, followed by a sales force put in place and then sales. Sales then lead to the buyout. We saw this in TRXC- most analysts have no clue. All they heard was competitor for ISRG gets approval. Probably had no idea what it even looked like. And the analysts who do understand Sport/Robotics- do you think they go into the boardroom and present TItan as a great investment opp? First question- what are sales numbers- 0. They would be laughed out of the room. Better to present something making 10-15 percent and look like a hero. But I bet the ones who understand own a fair number of shares in their personal account.
No news/ updates IMO is not bad. No need to update if you have a suitor. By the looks of who jumped on board- we are headed in the right direction. Zaring would have never left his position willingly and jumped on a land mine.