MARK TO MARKET: Get Out From Behind That Dumpster. NOW!
05 Apr 13:30
By Jim Murphy
A Dow Jones Newswires Column
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Is this a slippery slope, or not?
Based on a news item Thursday morning, it is only a matter of time before all
Americans will be sporting government-mandated sub-dermal chips so that Big
Brother can track them no matter where they go.
George Orwell was right in 1984. But he was nearly two decades early.
Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX) is a penny stock. Its shares closed
Thursday up four cents at 52 cents a share, a gain of 8.33%.
Why? Because just after 8 a.m. EST, the company put out a press release in
which it said it had been notified by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that
the agency didn't consider the company's "VeriChip" a medical device and
wouldn't therefore be regulating it.
Whippety!, exclaimed the company. "We can now begin to sell, market and
distribute VeriChip in the United States," the press release said.
The VeriChip is the size of a grain of rice. It is, the company claims, a bit
of state-of-the-art medical technology.
Implant the VeriChip. When you collapse in public and they take you to the
Emergency Room, a scanner can read the chip for your medical history, including
contraindications like, "Don't serve this patient canned asparagus."
Or, as the company's press release so dryly puts it: "Each VeriChip is
composed of FDA-accepted materials and contains a unique verification number.
That number is captured by briefly passing a proprietary external scanner over
the VeriChip.
"A small amount of radio frequency energy passes through the skin energizing
the dormant VeriChip, which then emits a radio frequency signal transmitting
the verification number."
I can see clearly now. "I say, old bean. I'm Jones from Intracorporeal
Security. Pardon me while I energize your dormant VeriChip and pass my
proprietary external scanner over your odafillarammipackaloomer."
Is this a slippery slope or not? Probably not. But maybe so. We'll find out,
won't we? To turn the observation on its head: "It is the greatest treason to
do the wrong thing for the right reason."
Meanwhile, I still don't engage in stock-picking, but if I do, you should
ignore me. So I can't say whether ADSX shares are a buy or not.
I can, however, tell you that the company aims to retail the VeriChip for
$200 a pop and says that the "proprietary external scanners" will sell for as
much as $3,000 each.
Frankly, in one respect I am surprised ADSX shares gained only 4 cents on the
news Thursday. I mean, those of us blessed to be making good money could have
picked up 1,000 shares for less than $500. Sinner that I am, I have lost more
than that in a night of playing the slots at Atlantic City.
In another respect, I'm not surprised that ADSX shares didn't ascend
heavenward Thursday. Many potential investors might have kept their wallets in
their pockets in the belief that otherwise, they'd be contributing to the
furtherance of "Big Brother Is Watching You."
Inexplicable
Sun Microsystems, a big tech company that everyone has heard of, trades on
the Nasdaq system under the symbol SUNW. Last year, SUNW reported revenues of
more than $18 billion.
Kasenna Inc. is a small, private software developer that few people have
heard of, other than the immediate members of the Kasenna Family.
If Sun Micro decided to invest money in Kasenna, you'd think Kasenna would
want the world to know about it.
And, up to a point, the little firm would.
As the press release this morning began: "MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April
5/PRNewswire/-Kasenna today announced a strategic investment in the company by
Sun Microsystems."
And that was the end of that. Nowhere in the foot-and-a-half-long release did
it say how much money Sun Micro had decided to invest.
And I'm asking myself, "What are these people at Kasenna, stupid? Dothey
need me to do media relations for them?"
Or, "Are they devious? Sun Micro, in fact, invested only $232.15."
Or, for some reason, a bullying Sun Micro forbade Kasenna from making public
the amount of the investment. "Do that, Kasenna, and you'll never develop
software in Mountain View again."
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
(Jim Murphy can be reached at (201) 938-2145 or Jim.Murphy@DowJones.Com)
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 04-05-02
01:30 PM |
