Lady. I am the facts. You are the hope wish and prayer. Say who is this convicted crim touting LPTH' stock? This Skip Nordstrom dude is a baaad boy. Why is he touting a "clean" stock like LPTH? A: LPTH may not be all that clean given it's undertaker and past history:
"Yet another fraudulant promoter tied to LightPath Technologies, Inc sec.gov
(the sordid past of Bill Nordstom)
LightPath Technologies, Inc.
NASDAQ-LPTHA Price at Publication: $4.63
nicstock.com
(writte nby Bill Nordstrom)
Today's conventional optics technology is over 100 years old. Improvements in optical lenses have been in the purity
of the glass and the accuracy and smoothness of cutting and polishing. But if you want to focus light on a particular
point, the basic optical lens technology is the same today as it was 100 years ago. As we all know, light beams
cannot be bent. They can be refracted, which is what a lens does, but bend? No. Until now.
LightPath Technologies, Inc., based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has developed, and is now commercializing, a
revolutionary new lens technology which enables them to make an optical lens in which the index varies along the
optical axis. A standard optical lens is homogeneous glass, and has a constant refractive index throughout the lens.
The LightPath lenses made with Gradium™ glass can do the work of multiple pieces of conventional glass or plastics,
and with dramatically improved performance. This technology will, without a doubt, establish a whole new standard
in optics performance, and represents, again without a doubt, the first radical improvement in optics design and
performance since Otto Schott's invention of our current optical technology over 100 years ago. I mean, the bar has
just been raised by a lot more than a notch or two.
The principal inventor of Gradium™ glass is a female entrepreneur with the demeanor of Cinderella and the tenacity
of a pit bull. She has spent the last ten years of her life working on this, raising $16 million along the way. None of the
venture capital boys would give her any money, and I can hear them in their boardrooms saying, "This crazy woman
thinks she can bend light??" So, she raised the money the hard way, in bits and pieces from friends and friends of
friends, and, I suspect, spent many a sleepless night wondering about her own sanity for pursuing this dream. But she
did, and I'm here to tell you that five or ten years from now, Leslie Danziger will be talked of in the same breath as
Chester Carlson and Joe Wilson, who invented and commercialized the Xerox machine. It's that big. You probably
think I've finally lost it, but let me give you some examples of where this Gradium™ glass thing is going.
Computer-controlled laser welding is widely used in automobile manufacturing. One of the big three U.S. auto
manufacturers gave a specification to a laser welding manufacturing company for welding a new stainless steel
component to be used on model year 2000 automobiles. The specification required 80% weld penetration (.020")
and a weld cycle time of under three seconds. The laser welding company (I can't use company names because I
promised confidentiality) tested a number of samples using their conventional laser optics (70 mm focal length) with
their Graded Index fiber optic beam delivery system. The power density was sufficient to meet the weld penetration
specification, but the weld cycle time was 5 seconds. The auto company advised the welding company that the cycle
time was a critical issue, and had to be met if they were going to use the laser company's product on this project. In
October 1996, LightPath engineers installed Gradium™ optics into the focusing assembly, and tested more samples.
The folling is excerpted from a December '96 letter to LightPath from the laser welding company: "Cross sections of
the test indicated the Gradium™ seam welds to be approximately 40% deeper than the welds with conventional
optics. Additionally, the Gradium™ optics produced a larger melt zone which appeared to be approximately 100%
greater in total area. In early November, after 18 months of inadequate results, we successfully completed samples
for our customer using Gradium™ optics. We are pleased to report the weld cycle time and penetration requirements
were easily met using Gradium™ optics and our laser. Frankly, we could not have met the weld cycle time with
conventional laser optics. Gradium™ optics provided the only practical solution to meet this particular requirement.
Last week, we received the first order for our laser welder from this customer, and a second order is pending. Full
production will require 4-6 additional laser systems. The value of these orders is over $500,000. All of these lasers
will incoorate Gradium™ optics. We believe Gradium™ optics will permit our family of pulsed laser welders to
achieve measurably better laser weld performance and will open up many new sales opportunities for our company
that we would otherwise be unable to bid."
Now, that's powerful customer feedback, and evidence that the Gradium™ technology can, indeed, establish new
performance standards in the optics industry. There are so many other applications of this remarkable breakthrough
that the mind boggles. One application currently in testing is for endoscopes--the tiny camera that doctors snake
down your throat to see what's going on in your stomach, etc. Endoscopes require up to 30 separate lenses to
capture the image. With Gradium™, you reduce the number of lenses in the path of the light, you increase the amount
of light that gets through to the back end, and you dramatically enhance the clarity and detail of the image the doctor
sees. Plus it's a lot easier and cheaper to manufacture because there are fewer parts to put together and align--and
less to go wrong later.
And, what's true in an endoscope is also true for cameras, binoculars, microscopes, telescopes, video recorders,
etc., etc. The market for Gradium™ glass is virtually every product that currently uses any form of optical lenses to
capture and direct light to a specific focal point. Unlike xerography, the market for Gradium™ is already here. Before
the Xerox machine, copies were made with carbon paper. A few people had Thermofax machines, but the advent of
the Xerox machine created an entirely new market. LightPath has a technology that is just as much of a breakthrough,
but the market already exists--all they need to do is get to it, which is what they are doing right now.
The company's strategy is essentially two-pronged. First, LightPath will provide a series of standard Gradium™
optical lenses which OEM designers can buy off the shelf and incorporate into their product designs. As a part of this
OEM market, LightPath can and will also develop "to spec" for those applications which have large volume potential.
Second, LightPath is developing a "Gradium™" brand identity program. The focus of this program is to create the
same kind of consumer identity that Intel has, which is to say that consumers are more likely to buy a computer that
says "Intel inside" than to buy one without an Intel chip. We will see products with a "Gradium™" logo that means,
"this one has the best components." In fact, LightPath expects to have a consumer product which contains
Gradium™ lenses available to the market by the end of 1997. I have no idea at the moment what kind of product it
will be, but I hope it's a camcorder, because with Gradium™ lenses you'll be able to get brighter pictures in less ght,
and I want one.
LightPath went public last February, selling 1.6 million units at $5.00 per unit. Each unit consists of one share of class
A common stock, one redeemable class A warrant, and one redeemable class B warrant, all separately transferable.
The class A warrant entitles the holder to purchase a share of class A common for $6.50 a share, the B warrant at
$8.75, both good for five years. There are also class E-1 common shares, class E-2 common shares, and class E-3
common shares, all of which convert to class A common upon the company meeting certain performance milestones.
This complicated capital structure is a result of the way the company was financed in the years before going
public--you gotta do what you gotta do. Currently, there are about 2.7 million shares of class A stock outstanding.
The class E shares all convert to class A common, one for one, depending on certain performance milestones. If all
the class E converts to class A, there will be about 6.7 million shares outstanding. I would guess that there e maybe
1.8 million shares in the public float. If the A and B warrants are exercised, 7.8 million shares would be added, for a
total outstanding of 14.5 million. However, if the A and B warrants are exercised, it brings another $61.8 million into
the company.
The units are currently trading at about $7.00, the common stock alone is $4.63, and the A and B warrants are
$1.31 and $0.75, respectively. The market capitalization of LightPath, then, with no effect given to the warrants, is
around $31 million, which is incredibly low for a technology with the potential of Gradium™ glass. LightPath has an
order pipeline which I think will result in 1997 revenues of at least $3 million, and perhaps as much as $5 million.
However, the important thing about 1997 is that most of the company's activity will be working with major potential
OEM customers designing prototype lenses for product prototypes. Obviously, as the laser welding company
discovered, Gradium™ glass provides unmatchable quality and performance. This prototype development in 1997
should lead to a major jump in revenues in 1998, at which time you will start seeing an increasing array of consumer
products on store shelves with "Gradium™ inside" logos. When you consider the industrial applications (lasers) and t
consumer applications, you can't help but believe LightPath is grossly undervalued today.
At the risk of overkill, there are two other arenas of enormous revenue potential, and they are telecommunications
and optoelectronics. Optoelectronic integrated circuits will use light as the signal carrier instead of electricity. Fiber
optic telephone lines use lightwaves to carry voice now. The market is in coupling optics, where light moves from an
exit point, i.e., a switch, to another entry point, i.e., a fiber optic cable. Conventional homogeneous optical material
with only one index of refraction always requires at least one surface to be curved, and an airspace to focus light. Any
time you have an airspace, you have the potential for contamination. Gradium™ glass can provide the proper
refraction of light with a lens that is flat on both sides, or "plano-plano." The refraction occurs inside and throughout
the Gradium™ glass, eliminating the need for a curved surface and an airspace.
Well, as you can tell, I'm pretty stoked about the potential of Gradium™ glass, and the stock of LightPath
Technologies. The class A common shares are going into our portfolio at $4.63 per share. If it isn't selling for more
than $40 per share in three years, you should cancel your subscription, because I'll have to admit that I don't know
anything about picking growth companies. If you want to know more, the company's Web site is: www.light.net. |
