Vic:
As you know another company changed their name and went onto OBB yesterday as Fnet. I understand the predisessor co was a NV shell who merged with Futurenet of Valencia CA and started trading under the sym FNet.
This IS NOT Franklin Internet or any affileation of ours.
Back to the main topic, I promiced you some history of Franklin. Here it is.
frank
Franklin's technology, as you point out, has a long history. I thought it might be interesting for you to know that history first, then in later communications our plans as far as I can disclose them. We have been very careful over the years not to disclose plans until they are very firm. Well -- here goes -
FRANKLIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP.
SOME CORPORATE HISTORY
The predecessor to Franklin Telecom, Franklin Systems, was founded in 1975. At that time, the founder, (that's me) envisioned a series of products based on the new personal computer technology which had not yet experienced a large growth rate. (This was five years before IBM introduced the PC.) Experience at IBM and Jacquard Systems, the first intelligent terminal maker, spawned these ideas. Franklin was then purchased by Exxon and operated as a division of Exxon Enterprises, Communications Systems Group for 3 years at which point the founder purchased the company back from Exxon.
Franklin Telecom was incorporated in California in 1981. The company has always been in the communications industry. Between 1984-1989 the company grew from zero to $50 million in sales and purchased ABM Computer of Irvine in 1986 which was a public company. In 1989, two divisions that represented $46 million in sales in the PC area were sold off to concentrate on the communications end of the business. With focus on our technical engineering, we have grown steadily, developing a sophisticated line of routers, channel banks, and high speed network interface cards for Ethernet Novell systems, etc. As a result, we can now provide virtually all of the components necessary for the end-users operating the Internet.
HISTORY
1975 FRANKLIN was founded at the beginning of the personal computer industry and has been developing and marketing communications technology since that time. FRANKLIN's first product was a Store & Forward Message Switch designed for automatically transmitting and receiving Telex and TWX international traffic. This product was sold to First Interstate Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, State Bank of India, the American Armed Forces Radio & Television Service (DOD), just to name a few. This product was based on an S100 Bus personal computer, the forerunner of the PC.
1980 Exxon Enterprises acquired Franklin for its store & forward message switching software. FRANKLIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP. was incorporated in 1981.
1983 The founder purchased the company back from Exxon in 1983 and started the PC division of FRANKLIN selling computers, disk drives and peripherals.
1986 Franklin Telecom acquired ABM Computer Systems and became a public company. FRANKLIN Telecom combined ABM's hardware technology with an expe-rienced packet switching and protocol software development team to create the MPP product line. FRANKLIN Datacom (incorporated in 1988) was formed to manufacture and sell these proprietary products via the sales channels being used by the other divisions.
1987 The Shamrock Mail Order division was formed in 1987 and grew at a rate of $100,000 per month for 12 months. Shamrock sold the same products as the PC division but under the Shamrock Label at a higher profit margin.
1989 Between 1985 and 1989 Franklin grew to $50 Million in sales from 3 divisions. FRANKLIN Datacom enjoyed a 62% GPM, then and now, while the other two divisions started losing money. During 1989, FRANKLIN Telecom divested itself of its operations as an OEM supplier and Value Added Reseller of personal computers and related products in order to concentrate on its Datacom business..
1990 After the divestitures in 1989, FRANKLIN Telecom remained liable for trade accounts payable which amounted to about $3,000,000 in May 1991. The largest portion of this debt was restructured to a long term royalty agreement. The remainder was settled on a case by case basis.
1993 As a result of a restructuring in 1990 and 1991 FRANKLIN Telecom cleaned up the balance sheet and showed a net profit of $120,000 on operations for the 1993 fiscal year. The results for 1993, 1994 are enclosed or available.
1995 Franklin Internet (FNet) is established as a new division of Franklin, providing direct Internet Service, hardware to other Internet Service Providers and setting up Business Partnerships with entrepreneurs throughout Southern California. These partnerships provide on-going revenues to Franklin while creating an additional market for our hardware products.
ACQUISITIONS & LICENSES
In Dec. 1994 Franklin acquired 99% of the shares, a manufacturing license and the rights to two patents of LAN Performance Labs, a maker of Fast Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NIC). FTC began shipping Fast Ethernet Network Interface boards in Jan. 1995.
STRUCTURE
1995 The company is traded on NASDAQ on the over the counter market as FTEL. FRANKLIN Datacom is a privately held California corporation which is solely owned by FRANKLIN Telecom.
FRANKLIN now has no Bank debt and the normal trade payable are all current.
SEC RELATIONS
1992 FRANKLIN Telecom filed an SEC Form 15 in late 1992 and ceased reporting in order to save on auditing fees and a myriad of other expenses connected with reporting to the SEC. Accordingly we have not filed any 10Q or 10K reports to the SEC since then.
1994 NASDAQ changed the trading symbol from "FTCO" to "FTEL" on Feb. 1, 1994 when the company did a one for ten stock split. There are approximately 10.5 million shares outstanding. The Standard & Poors CUSIP number was changed from 354727-10-9 to 354727-20-8
1996 Having completed an audit to for the last three years, Franklin has filed Form 10 with the SEC to begin reporting again. There are approximately 13 million shares outstanding.
The Market Makers for our stock are:
M.H. Meyerson Joe Schmidt 800/888-8118
Wilson Davis Paul Davis 801/532-6761
Troster Singer Corp. 800/222-0890
NAIB 800/952-6559
Paragon 212/785-4700
OPERATIONS
FRANKLIN currently sells its products principally to "Fortune 500" companies [see attached list], OEM's, and the Federal Government through a small, technically oriented sales force. FRANKLIN's current products are access level X.25 ("X-Dot-25") packet switches, PAD's and concentrators that are used to facili-tate the flow of information between geographically separate data processing facilities such as bank ATM's (Automatic Teller Machines), local area networks (LANS), wide area networks (WANS), point of sale equipment (retail stores), and personal computers. This protocol (X.25 and Frame Relay) are of great use to banks and the like because they "Guarantee" accurate delivery of the data.
The Company's manufacturing facility is combined with the Company's headquarters in Westlake Village, California in a leased 10,000 square foot building. Board-level assembly of the Company's proprietary Datacom products is contracted out to local board assembly houses, with final systems assembly and testing completed at the Company's facility. The Company's manufacturing operations consist primarily of procurement, inspection and testing of components, final assembly of subsystems, and extensive testing of finished products. Quality and reliability are emphasized in the selection of components and in the assembly of final products. Accordingly, each of the Company's products undergoes thor-ough quality inspection and testing throughout the assembly process.
Franklin Internet (FNet) is also based in Westlake Village. While offering Internet access on all levels, FNet has from its inception focussed on Business Quality service with twenty-four hour monitoring and technical support provided by our engineering staff. Our in-house design unit creates state-of-the-art Web sites which are eye-catching and effective business tools. Web-hosting is also available. Within the next few months, FNet will begin providing a variety of Value-Added services which will be available throughout the U.S.
OWNERSHIP
FRANKLIN Telecom stock is publicly traded OTC as FTEL.. Approx-imately 30 percent of FRANKLIN Telecom's stock is held by the founder and his family. Five percent is held by Gandalf Technologies & four percent by Mr. Colin Patterson, the co-founder of Gandalf Technologies.
EXISTING PRODUCTS
ú REMOTE TERMINAL SERVERS, PADS, CONCENTRATORS, SWITCHES & NETWORK CONTROL CENTERS. The FRANKLIN Multi-Protocol Pad & Branch Node (FBN) of terminal servers use BSC, SNA, Burroughs Pole/Select, Honeywell VIP, 3270 Emulation, X.25 & Frame Relay in a Wide Area Network and are controlled by the Franklin Network Control Center. Over 100,000 nodes have been installed worldwide.
ú ROUTERS. The Tempest family of IPX/IP - Frame Relay Routers with SNMP & built in CSU/DSU's & ISDN Basic Rate Interface (2B+D) & Primary Rate Interface.
ú CHANNEL BANKS. The D-Mark Channel Bank for the termination of T-1 Eight to 24 ports of voice PBX's and data PVC. The D-Mark incorporates the technology behind the MPP into a new device which enables customers to reduce telephone costs by increasing line capacity up to five or more times its current level while at the same time achieving more accurate data/voice transmissions. The D-Mark was designed to be compatible with the more than 10,000 installed Franklin Multi-Protocol PADs (MPPs). The Company's customers can conveniently and inexpensively upgrade their existing Franklin equipment to incorporate T-1, Voice, FAX, and LAN connectivity. The D-Mark incorporates proprietary software and hardware.
ú NETWORK INTERFACE CARDS (NIC) HUBS & CONCENTRATORS.
Local Area Networks require a NIC PC type circuit card in each computer or work station on the LAN or network.
ú The Franklin T100 line of Fast Ethernet cards have been shipping since Jan. 1995.
ú The new Hurricane 155 of Ultra Fast Ethernet began shipping June 1995.
ú This technology is patented and FTC intends to license the patents.
The existing products consist of the following groups:
1. Multi-Protocol PAD, (MPP Packet Assembler, Disassembler) Concentrator and Switch:
A multi-protocol Switching PAD, which supports SNA, Bisync, Async, Burroughs and X.25 protocols concurrently in any combination, and a Network Control Center that supports a network of switches and multi-protocol PAD's (MPP's). A PAD is the acronym for Packet Assembler/Disassembler; a PAD takes data and groups it into "packets" of data which are then sent across a transmission line. A PAD at the receiving end takes the packets and disassembles them back into a regular data stream. Packetizing data allows for more control over the transmission process as well as better error detection.
Network Control Center (NCC) is a separate product consisting of at least one communications port of any kind, a modem at 2400 BPS or higher and a diskette which can run on any ISA Buss PC. This is a very powerful product in that the Network Manager can Monitor & Change his network from anywhere in the world using secured passwords.
This product line enables customers to reduce their telephone costs and permit more accurate data/voice transmission by increasing the capacity of a transmission line up to five times or more of its current capacity.
2. Board-Level Products include: Three high performance, PC-based data communications line cards, the ICP188 with 512K memory and four ports, the ACP186 with 8 ports and the MCR-6, a powerful version of the ICP186 designed for IBM PS/2, RS/6000 and the NCR 3000 microchannel architecture systems has 4 ports.
3. Network Access Products include: EM3270, a powerful emulation package providing a PC application with access to 32 host sessions simultaneously in shared memory; and EMX25 Cluster, a similar package providing multi-port access to an X.25 network from a PC appli-cation.
The engineering staff at FRANKLIN has developed products which will expand our market rather than trying to "capture" market share. This product line extension involves building on the strengths of its MPP, or Multi-Protocol PAD, with products to allow the MPP to connect with a broader variety of digital interfaces including T-1 transmission lines, LAN's, and Voice.
The flexibility of these new products allows FRANKLIN to enhance existing custom-ers' equipment by providing a broader base of solutions. The goal is to develop a full line of products in order to provide a modular growth path toward a full-feature data packet switching platform, which allows access to any combination of public and/or private net-works. The continued development of products based on the IBM PC platform offers customers the familiarity of commonplace hardware with system upgradability and inter-changeability to customize their data communications interfaces. All of the new products will maintain the ease of field upgradability with respect to software and firmware in a similar fashion to existing products.
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE
FRANKLIN has developed over 300 software modules and 20 hardware co-processors and interface boards. Most products are boards which plug into a PC (ISA, EISA, VESA, PCI or Micro Channel Bus) and are 'Software Driven', i.e. there are never any communication protocols or application code in firmware or in EPROM's which would compromise the ability of FRANKLIN to update its products remotely. This last principle allows FRANKLIN to upgrade its products by changing the software. These updates can be accom-plished from remote locations without sending technicians to the actual unit to locate, remove and replace cards.
PROTECTION
Copyrights & Patents
The Company holds two major patents on hardware designs in the LAN transmission area. The Company also holds copyrights on over 300 software programs and 20 hardware designs. These copyrights and patents plus the trade secrets form a significant competitive advantage. Most of the engineering effort at the Company is in software development and therefore copyrights are used for all software. The Compa-ny relies principally on a combination of patent, contract, copyright and trade secret laws to protect the company's proprietary interest in its products.
INSTALLED CUSTOMER BASE
The Company has a large base of companies using its products and has shipped over 100,000 MPP units. From Franklin's inception, the toughest challenge has been in maintaining the flexibility of its product capabilities. Because every piece of hardware in use today has its own particular software conventions, the number of software and hardware combinations that customers can implement is almost infinite. As a result, the Company has been tasked with developing a vast number of interconnecting hardware and software solutions. To date, Franklin has developed well over 300 unique, proprietary software modules for use on over 20 different hardware co-processors and interface boards.
OWNERSHIP
FNet is owned by FRANKLIN Telecom whose stock is publicly traded and the founder of FTEL. Approx-imately 30 percent of Telecom's stock is held by the founder and his family. Five percent is held by Gandalf Technologies & four percent by Mr. Colin Patterson, the co-founder of Gandalf Technologies.
FRANKLIN TELECOM
PARTIAL CUSTOMER LIST
* AMERICAN AIRLINES
* AMERICAN EXPRESS
* AT & T
* AT & T BELL LABORATORIES
* ATT INTERNATIONAL
* BELL ATLANTIC
* BELLCORE
* BENDIX FIELD ENG. CORP.
* BOEING COMPUTER SUPPORT
* C & P TELEPHONE
* CAP GEMINI SESA ITALIA
* CITIBANK
* COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP.
* COMSAT SYSTEMS DIVISION
* TANDEM COMPUTERS
* CONTEL ASC
* FIFTH THIRD BANK
* FIRST BOSTON CORP.
* GANDALF TECHNOLOGIES
* GENERAL DATACOM INTERNATIONAL
* GRAPHNET
* GTE SYSTEMS DIV.
* HEWLETT PACKARD - FRANCE
* HUGHES AIRCRAFT
* IBM FRANCE
* IBM U.S.
* INFOTRON/GANDALF U.K.
* INTERVOICE
* ITT DEFENSE COMM. DIV.
* KENNY CO., INC.
* KIDDER, PEABODY & CO., INC.
* MOTOROLA, INC G.E.G.
* NAVAL OCEAN SYSTEMS SD
* NCR
* NEW JERSEY BELL
* NORCAL
* NORTHERN TELECOM, INC.
* NY Stock Exchange
* ORACLE
* PRICE COMPANY
* QUOTRON SYSTEMS, INC.
* REUTERS INFO SERVICES, INC.
* REVCO, D.S., INC.
* SCHLUMBERGER
* SEER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
* SESA ITALIA S.P.A.
* SHEARSON LEHMAN
* SMS DATA PRODUCTS GROUP
* SEMI-KINETICS
* STANDARD & POORS TRADING
* STOCKMATE
* SYNC SATELLITE SYSTEMS, INC.
* TELEKURS (N. AMERICA) INC.
* US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
* UNITED HEALTH CARE, CANADA
* US BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
* US ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS
* US NAVY EOC
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