Great report, from an RB post today:
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By: MAGIC
Reply To: 6672 by crystalballs
Sunday, 31 Oct 1999 at 4:56 PM EST
Post # of 6687
VISIT TO OGPS IN VANCOUVER:
Sorry about the delay in getting this written but I've been traveling for most of the past two weeks. I
visited the corporate office and new facility (currently being renovated) on Monday, October 18th.
My tour guide was Sak Narwal, CFO and Director of the company.
The corporate office is right downtown. The first 18 floors or so were public access but the OGPS
office is on the 22nd floor and initially I couldn't figure out how to get up there. I asked at the security
desk finally and they wrote my name down and picked up the phone. He then called for a private
elevator and escorted me to it, (it wasn't in the same area as the public elevators) using a key to
allow me access to the 22nd floor. I already had a smile on my face.
The office was essentially a penthouse apartment converted into offices. There were pictures of
the Martian landscape taken by the APS camera on the wall, blueprints of things yet announced,
RadioSat and gambling-related software info readily available. The receptionist introduced me to
Sak. Sak is in his mid-thirties, educated in London (hence the British accent), and appeared to me
to come from old money. He oozed class but in the "old money" way, without pretense or flash.
We first discussed RadioSat and he showed me some stuff put together by Mark Moeller and Gary
Noreen. He showed me material involving the APS technology and Kukkonen from the Jet
Propulsion Labs. I met Sterling and we went to an adjoining office where we met the fellow in
charge of gambling software development (can't remember his name). He then suggested we
head over to the new offices.
We hopped in his black Porsche and began talking about the market on the way over to the new
offices. He was unhappy with the share price. He felt there could be a 2-3M share short position.
He said he has offers of financing (large $) once the share price goes over $5. He said the $1-5
range is always the toughest to break through. He figured once it is fully reporting (he hoped for a
filing in November) and further developments are announced there should be no problem breaking
it through. At these prices with the technology and revenue projections OGPS has, it was his
opinion the share price is a joke. He explained that the company had strategically focused on
increasing investor awareness of the company in previous months but now is more focused on
delivering the goods. He mentioned he had a lot of his own money in the company, that salaries
are bare bones, the NASA guys have taken a position in the company through restricted stock and
that insiders aren't selling. The burn rate is roughly $50,000 per month. Despite the low share price
he exuded complete confidence that Omicron will be a household name one day, up there with
Microsoft. We made a bet on where the share price would be on April 30, 2000. Dinner at the
restaurant of choice in Vancouver with wives to the winner.
The new offices of OGPS occupy the entire fifth floor (11,000 sq. feet) of a building in Burnaby that
were formerly the software development and corporate offices of Electronic Arts. Sak mentioned
they had struck a great deal on a sub-lease from from Electronic Arts ($3.50/sq. ft.) for the first six
months with a gradual escalation from that point. Another tremendous advantage is that the floor is
already wired for software development, saving them another pile of money. There were at least 20
construction people working on the remodelling when we entered. A software development team
was working on gambling software and the investornewz web site in one area. There are at least
20 medium bedroom size offices on the floor, a weight room, cafeteria/kitchen and a large
basketball court sized area where the software development team will be located. I saw a bingo
machine and the area where it will be located. There was a large deck outside that will have picnic
tables for a fresh air escape and/or lunches for employees. Occupation date is around the middle
of November and IMO the offices will be quite stunning (not the typical operation of an OTC:BB
company, though hopefully it'll be a NASDAQ company sooner than later).
In conclusion I am convinced this company is real. I liked the people, they were completely
down-to-earth and didn't try to put on a show of any type. Information on everything that has been
announced was available and management seems focused on getting it done. Some of the
software development employees asked me what I thought, but the questions were coming more
from the angle of "did I get it" and "do you now see the vision and huge potential of this company"?
A couple of them told me they had family members in a lot higher than the current price and while it
was somewhat bothersome, it didn't really matter because in the end everyone is going to be very
happy. There is a quiet confidence of future success and an energy/excitement that is organization
wide.
Hope I didn't leave much out. Saw some stuff (unavoidably) that pertains to things that haven't
been announced yet but don't want to comment because it only gets people into trouble. Bottom
line is, this is real and if they do what they say they're going to, any one holding shares is going to
do really well over the next year or two IMO. It doesn't matter whether they were bought at $1 or $3
IMO, this company will trade way above those levels if they can implement. Everything else
necessary seems to be there.
(Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; ST Rating- Strong Buy; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
