Kevin,
What part of this wasn't specific enough for you?
I will BET you that REFR WILL be profitable just as Robert Saxe stated and that the claims made in the two recent hit pieces by your "friend" make false statements and assumptions about REFR and its licensees.
Here is a copy of what Robert Saxe said:
refr-spd.com
<<Robert L. Saxe, President of Research Frontiers, noted that "We have now substantially completed the goals set forth in the ‘road map’ we outlined for our shareholders in mid-1999, which focused on building the SPD supply infrastructure. With the achievement of those goals, and based on commercial sales projections for SPD light-control products by our licensees, for the first time we can reasonably predict the timing of future revenues and profits. Based upon projected timetables and sales goals of Research Frontiers’ licensees for SPD film and end-products, the Company expects to earn royalties from sales of licensed products (payable under license agreements within 45 days after the end of the quarter in which sales of licensed products occur) early next year, achieve its first quarterly profit next year, and achieve its first full-year of profit in 2003, but possibly in 2002. Thereafter profits are expected to escalate rapidly."
Market data indicates a healthy profit potential for Research Frontiers. According to market research performed by The Freedonia Group, worldwide annual flat glass production in 1999 aggregated 37 billion square feet (of which 15.1 billion square feet was in Asia, 8.1 billion square feet in North America, and 7.6 billion square feet in Western Europe). Based upon this data, if licensees of Research Frontiers collectively achieve a mere 1% penetration of the worldwide market for newly produced glass, this will comprise 370 million square feet of windows made SPD-smart each year. The vast majority of this glass production goes towards architectural building window products, which represent over 55% of flat glass sales in the U.S., and automotive glass products, which represent over 25% of U.S. flat glass sales. The Company presently estimates that it will receive from its licensees an earned royalty of at least $1.00 to $1.50 per square foot from architectural and automotive glass products, with a much larger earned royalty of between $40 and $150 per square foot for certain other product applications such as aircraft windows. Based upon a recent market survey of 50 leading U.S. window manufacturers done for Research Frontiers by The Townsend Research Group, U.S. window manufacturers expect 6.2% of commercial buildings and 3.6% of residential homes to have some type of "smart" windows by 2005. Therefore, in the intermediate or long term, the Company believes that its present and future architectural window licensees will achieve a penetration of architectural markets that will far exceed 1%. In addition to newly-produced SPD windows, architectural windows already in place could be retrofitted with SPD film or SPD window covering products. Research Frontiers estimates that such windows in place aggregate to an enormous market of perhaps 150-300 billion square feet.
Two years ago, at Research Frontiers’ June 1999 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the Company outlined a road map indicating its goal of completing the supply infrastructure to support mass-production of products using the Company’s technology. In order to commercialize end-products using SPD technology, there first needed to be sources of high quality SPD emulsion - the basic chemicals that can then be processed into a thin SPD film. Shortly after outlining the road map, Research Frontiers signed license agreements with two emulsion makers, Dainippon Ink and Chemicals Inc. and Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. During the first half of 2000, Research Frontiers added a third emulsion-maker, Polaroid, to its list of emulsion supplier licensees. The first critical "link" in the SPD supply chain - SPD emulsion - has now been established.
SPD emulsion manufacturers are licensed to make SPD emulsion, and, under their license with Research Frontiers, sell to licensees of Research Frontiers who process the emulsions into a thin SPD film. In turn, SPD film-making licensees are licensed to sell film to a growing list of companies already licensed to make SPD end-products. Currently there are six companies licensed by Research Frontiers to make these SPD films: Hankuk Glass Industries, General Electric, Material Sciences Corp., Hitachi Chemical, Polaroid, and Film Technologies International, with the last two film-making licensees being added last year and earlier this year, respectively. This step in the supply chain - sources for SPD film - has now been completed and strengthened.>> |
