Hi all,
Last Monday I met Wendy Ravenal at EDIG in San Diego, because of the information that might be seen in touring the facility, I virtually only saw the front office and the conference room.
Wendy could tell me little that I didn't already know, but she clarified some things, for instance, MicroOS does not require any type of chip to be added to a device, it can be loaded into memory, only requires about 8K, and would normally not reside on the removable flash memory in most devices.
It was also clear that Lucent owns EPAC and does not intend to market the player eDig is developing for them under the Lucent name. While we were there she attempted to get some sketches or a model out of the CEO's office, she was told she could no longer show them to investors. She indicated that negotiations were ongoing, and while she would not commit to a timeframe, she still felt that with non-conventional distribution methods, i.e. ordering the units off the Internet, this years holiday season was still quite doable.
I believe the same device will be built for several major well known distributors, possibly names like Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic, etc. They will all look somewhat different, but the key internal components will be the same. She did not specifically mention any of the above companies, but it's clear that negotiations are ongoing, and I believe several companies are involved. As to when an announcement could be made, her response was less then 6 months.
We had a chance to look at the unit delivered to Lanier. While it was a little bulky, it combined a recording unit with a bar code reader and numerical key pad, so it really replaced several devices. The reception for this in the medical and legal profession is quite good, but it's not intended for the consumer market. I asked if a microphone was to be included in any of the units being developed for Lucent, and was told she couldn't answer the question at this time, clearly it's being considered on some models.
While Wendy felt the company has been through a lot and is headed in the right direction, she did not want to put herself in a position of advising investors to buy. Indicating we should all do our own DD. She did indicate they're well aware of Nasdaq requirements and they meet everything except for stock price, which must be over $4 for 60 days. The important thing was she clearly indicated they met all other requirements.
All and all I was impressed with her, the company's facilities looked impressive, although I couldn't tour them, and I can understand why many questions we'd all like to ask cannot be answered, so in most cases, I didn't ask. She did indicate the Annual Meeting, which last year was held in January, would be moved up to late October, and when we get the details, I hope to attend. They're expecting upwards of 200 investors, which is quite unusual.
My feeling is positive toward the company, no guarantees of course, but I also asked about the known competition, she indicated their are two other companies that do a similar job of controlling flash and other memory. The difference is each of those companies require a propriatary chip be installed in the device being controlled, eDig's MicroOS simply loads into memory, thus if enhancements or bug fixes are added, a new version can simply be uploaded. Bottom line, lower cost, less space required, more versatile, equally reliable. I think getting on the Nasdaq this year is a real possibility.
Gary |
