Here is a cross post from RB: Please go back to the privous post at the following link for the original questions.
ragingbull.com
By: mluther628
Reply To: 37 by keysersoze Thursday, 26 Aug 1999 at 5:48 PM EDT
Post # of 41
This is Mike Luther again. I am not a real advocate of message board interaction and will limit my comments in the future. I am happy to speak on the telephone or via email (mluther628@aol.com). Our web sites for both ADEN and SYME will be operative in about one week and will be the official means of posting, etc. Obviously, we will post material developments with the SEC and submit press releases.
A few answers are below and I am sorry to be incomplete, but some aspects of our plans are not yet public.
1. I am Chairman and CEO of Aden. ADEN has a checkered history rife with false starts. All of the history is due to my shortcomings and poor judgement and/or execution by me and my team. ADEN has evolved into Internet Travel and obtained rights to a patent owned by MercExchange LLC. I read about it in the Wall Street Journal and was intrigued about its strength in relation to the success of Priceline. There seemed to be a David vs. Goliath story in MercExchange. I called the founder of MercExchange and eventually convinced him that ADEN was a good place to commercialize his intellectual property (patents, etc.) Our licensing relationship was limited to travel and ADEN grew through acquisition of brick and mortar agencies. During my involvement with the MercExchange founder, Tom Woolston, I realized this guy was the smartest man I had every met. He had a unique grasp of technology and commercial deployment; a skill set that is lacking in most people. Our work relationship felt like a symphony and lead to his recent decision to become the full-time CTO for ADEN. Furhtermore, ADEN entered into a blanket relationship with MercExchange to become the broad licensee for other vertical markets. This was a key change for us and I know it was controversial given our public activity with a travel focus. However, the broader market opportunities with the MercExchange patent are so compelling that I felt such a change held merit. In the past, ADEN was a serious loser in the public markets and thus the "currency" value of our stock was limited. At this stage, there are nearly 100 million shares of ADEN outstanding and after we file with the SEC, we will have to issue over 200 million more for our acquisitons, employee deals and the transaction with MercExchange. For my calculations, I use 300 million shares at $.50 (current price) and show a valuation of $150 million. We believe the MercExchange 207 patent is strong in relation to Priceline.com (see Priceline latest SEC filing on their $500 million equity secondary for a detailed disclosure about the MercExchange patent and potential litigation). Thus, the goal of ADEN is to develop dynamic-based pricing in many markets. As to the relationship with SYME, we (ADEN, me and associates) have funded SYME for the past 18 months with a very limited presence. The net effect is that ADEN will become the largest shareholder of SYME after conversion of funds advance. SYME has about 25 million shares outstanding and 50 million authorized. Our focus with SYME is to create an extension into vertical markets with the MercExchange patent. We hope to expand into the automotive area rapidly with the use of the MercExchange patent. On the technology side, we are pure Oracle. We have hired a number of people from Oracle and expect to build a high-end platform using the MercExchange technology. This should roll out in a number of releases. Our goal is rapid time-to-market in several verticals. In conjunction with this idea, SYME currency will be useful to expand into new verticals with partners and acquisitions; furthermore, we will use it to attract the best talent possible. We value the currency of ADEN and SYME highly and realize that reasoned business decisions with a scarce asset and good execution create shareholder value.
2. All of our litigation to date has been surrounding vendors and lenders who were not repaid. We are making progess in these areas and most of this stems from limited capital. Our funding is ongoing and we expect to eliminate these issues with money. The road has been long and the trail is littered with ugly litigation that affected the companies and me personally. As to our our integrity, we have been at the same phone number in the same town for this entire period and communicate with all of our creditors, etc. Other litigation was with a web site Cheapfares.com and the economics of this are minimal. Lastly, the Priceline litigation is ongoing and we are on the offensive. They have more resources than we do, but the patent and other aspects speak for themselves. We are like the soliders in Chechnia (sp). Our culture involves surviving and innovating with little or no resources. We are capitalists, yet we love our work.
3. Late filings are a result of poor management and lack of funds to pay accountants, attornies, etc. My partner and I just had an IPO with Homestore.com (we were the original 51% owners). Our stock is in a lockup and I collateralized much of mine, but the stake is 8 digits. Our luck is turning and we will continue to fund ADEN/SYME.
4. SYME owns 51% of GPS and Dale owns 49%. It is not difficult to see that GPS can process for many businesses, including those of ADEN. We all benefit from this. As to other TP platforms, we are working on things and will comment as things develop.
5. Cozy, great word choice. Take a look at the listings and compare them with any other on ebay. I challenge you and am offended. My opinion is hire the best wherever the source is. Any problem with that? As to competition, did Dell think about IBM when he was in his dorm room?
6. Oracle.
7. see above on patents. We can share much more on this.
I am off to a meeting. As to the other issues, medical audience will develop. We have some low-cost ideas for content and commerce. We will invest little and expect to have a functional site with good activity in 30 days. On the 2c issue, I can't comment any further. The b-to-b is very robust and competition will become intense here too. All of this translate into our need to be focussed and execute well.
Thanks,
Mike
(Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; ST Rating- Strong Buy; LT Rating- Strong Buy)
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