David and Everyone,
You stated the case very well, and I thank you for it. I have tried to stay out of the "battle zone", but maybe I can help to ease the tensions so we can all return to more productive discussion about AGTI. Believe me, I'm 100% sincere in a mission of trying not to offend or infuriate anyone. If I inadvertently step on anyone's toes, then I apologize in advance for the failure to properly remain unoffensive.
AGTI is not a perfect company, far from it. Years of R&D created a cash-burning machine which is slow to recover. In some opinions, the salaries of upper management are too high when compared to the company's current performance. (I personally disagree, but I am trying to present a balanced summary here). But that lengthy R&D phase resulted in the best family of products in the emerging world of electronic bingo, a point on which I think we all agree. Now our products, at least most of them, are finally entering the marketplace. Quite successfully, considering their recent introduction. And the potential marketplace is HUGE, another uncontested issue. Even moderate market penetration by AGTI could result in a vigorous revenue stream over the coming years, which should logically improve share prices in some commensurate manner. I am personally expecting a MAJOR improvement over the next year. I think we all agree that profitability is likely to be near term, although we may disagree on the definition of "near term".
Primarily because of the long R&D phase, cash flow and financing remain as thorny problems for AGTI. In order to fill current and/or continuing orders, the company incurs a substantial cost....but cash is extremely limited. There's simply no "silver bullet" for the financial woes, and so the company must resort to non-traditional methods of infusing cash, such as the Reg S sales which NONE of us like. I'm not promoting Reg S, believe me. But as a long term investor I recognize that production costs simply must be funded, or orders will not get filled. But the orders MUST be filled in order for us to reach profitability. I am no financial wiz, so I can offer no better alternative to AGTI if all the traditional methods of financing have been exhausted. Maybe some of you are better equipped to offer alternative financing arrangements than I.
Again, without intentionally offending anyone, I fail to see any value in throwing rocks at AGTI or at each other. It's one thing to report events as they occur, sometimes good or sometimes bad. But if all of us are truly shareholders in AGTI and are not working with ulterior motives to harm Advanced Gaming, I think we should reflect on the harm we may inadvertently do to our own investment if we continue to "trash" the company. Makes absolutely no sense, for me or for any other shareholder. And believe me, there are numerous followers of this thread who never post -- I have received email from several of them. They occasionally express concern about the negative pronouncements of some posters on SI.
If we are all working toward getting to the "end of the rainbow", please think before you post. There are enough real challenges without creating our own. BTW, I have been diligently working on the gathering of some info for the mutual benefit of this thread.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Hardrocker |
