Ask Joe ---"You want to know...Ask Joe"
May 11, 2003
I am happy that the inaugural edition [ smartglass.com ] of my AskJoe column struck such a chord with our shareholders. Thanks for your support and kind words. Some of you have asked why my second edition did not come out earlier. As mentioned when I started the AskJoe column, there is no set frequency to when the AskJoe column will be published. It will come out whenever there are new things to talk about or as an efficient way of answering general questions that may be of interest to all of our shareholders. Since my last column, there have been many developments and some of these have been communicated in our annual report on Form 10-K, our end-of-the-year conference call on March 31st, and in our Annual Report [ smartglass.com ] which was mailed to shareholders last week. As always, if specific questions come up, they are sometimes answered individually, rather than in the AskJoe column. I encourage you to continue to email specific questions to the appropriate department within Research Frontiers, with investor relations questions being addressed to Patricia Bryant (Bryant@SmartGlass.com) and marketing questions being addressed to Michael LaPointe ( LaPointe@SmartGlass.com ). General questions about SPD-Smart products can be sent to info@SmartGlass.com.
This past week, we welcomed Air Products and Chemicals to our growing list of companies who have become involved with the SPD-Smart industry which we and our licensees have built. Earlier this month, Air Products was licensed by Research Frontiers to make SPD emulsions and SPD light-controlling film for use in various SPD-Smart end products. For those of you who do not know Air Products and Chemicals, they are a diversified company with tremendous strengths and an excellent reputation in the many industries that they are involved with. Their products and services serve customers in the technology, energy, healthcare and industrial markets worldwide, and include atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials and chemical intermediates. As they noted in the joint Press Release that our two companies issued on May 7th, Air Products is the largest global supplier of electronic materials, hydrogen, helium and select performance chemicals, and have been recognized for their innovative culture, operational excellence and commitment to safety and the environment. Air Products has annual revenues of $5.4 billion, employs over 17,000 people, and operates in over 30 countries. Air Products ranks 311th in sales among FORTUNE magazine's current list of the 500 largest corporations in the U.S. Their corporate headquarters are at the company's 600-acre campus in eastern Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, near Allentown; European headquarters are at Hersham, near London; and Asian headquarters are in Singapore, with offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong. For those who want to take Air Products up on their slogan of “Tell Me More”, please visit their web site at www.airproducts.com.
Let me add a few personal observations about Air Products. After they spoke with industry experts, Air Products contacted us about one year ago. Through the course of that year, we continued to meet each other at their headquarters and ours, as well as at industry conferences. They also had the opportunity to speak with, and have traveled to meet with, many of our licensees across the world. I am aware of at least 20 people within Air Products who were involved with the SPD project in one form or another, and without exception, I must say that everyone that we had the pleasure of meeting were extraordinary people who were highly professional and thorough. As expressed in their 2002 Annual Report [ airproducts.com ] Air Products’ goal is "Being the Best Company to Invest in, Buy from, and Work for." The people I have met certainly exemplify that vision. I am confident that because of their expertise in areas relevant to our SPD technology, especially in polymers, colloidal chemistry, coatings, and adhesives, that they will add tremendous value to our supply chain, and help improve the performance of SPD materials. It also helps that they already have excellent relationships with many of our current and future licensees. As noted in their 2002 Annual Report, Air Products is a technology and environmentally-oriented company that invested about $120 million in fiscal 2002 on R&D, with about two-thirds of those dollars being applied to strategic growth areas. All of us at Research Frontiers welcome them and look forward to working with them.
Also as part of our efforts to make our supply chain that supports our end-product licensees more robust, and to constantly add geographic diversity and increased capabilities, about two weeks ago we also welcomed Custom Glass Corporation as a licensee to provide lamination services to our licensees, as well as to make SPD-Smart windows for mass transit trains and busses. Custom Glass Corporation has been fabricating quality glass products for over 20 years and is ISO 9001:2000 certified. You can read more about them in our April 21st joint Press Release and by visiting their web site at www.customglass.com.
Many of the activities by Research Frontiers and our licensees during 2002 and 2003 are outlined in the Letter to our Shareholders which is contained in this year’s Annual Report. We hope that you enjoy reading it as much as Bob Saxe and I enjoyed writing it.
A few final housekeeping issues: Our Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held at the Fox Hollow Inn in Woodbury, New York at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 12th. I hope to see many of you there. In connection with our Annual Meeting, last week our Proxy Statement and our 2002 Annual Report were mailed to shareholders. If you hold your stock in Research Frontiers in your own name, you may have already received your Proxy Statement and Annual Report. If your stock is held in the name of your broker, you may receive these materials in the next few weeks since your brokerage firm will forward these materials to you. If you do not receive these materials in the next few weeks, please contact your broker or our Manager of Investor Relations, Patricia Bryant ( Bryant@SmartGlass.com ) .
Our supply chain and end-product licensees continue to expand, and I look forward to sharing new and exciting developments with you in future AskJoe columns. In the meantime, please remember to send your questions, comments and suggestions to AskJoe@SmartGlass.com .
Joe Harary
smartglass.com |
