Victor,
A couple more thoughts on FONX:
One has to be concerned about the length of time that has elapsed since the first Siemens Statement of Work, and what it might mean.
Consider this possibility - perhaps Siemens signed the first agreement in order to "get a look under the hood" of FONX's technology. A million bucks is confetti to them, and it would give them a chance to deconstruct the hardware/software enough to figure out whether it was worth it to them to license - or perhaps, to copy. If Intel, with all its patents and muscle, couldn't prevent clones from being developed, what are FONX's chances?
So, the length of time that has elapsed COULD mean a couple things:
1. Siemens has had a good look at FONX's technology, isn't particularly impressed, and there never will be another SOW. It sure has been awfully quiet out there! Or,
2. Siemens thinks FONX has something pretty good, and is figuring out a workaround so that they can move on with it, but without FONX - or maybe just a cross-licensing agreement that keeps the lawyers off their backs, but never makes FONIX a profit. If they thought it was great and weren't doing a workaround, wouldn't they be in a hurry to lock up the rights?
Lest you think FONX's patent will protect them, I'm not so sure. It surely isn't broad enough to protect neural network use in general, as other companies already have neural networks doing voice recognition on the market. So just how will it protect? I haven't found a single FONX bull who can explain what the patent covers, let alone whether it would be easy or not to work around. And that's another place the delays have been ominously long - FONX management promised additional patents would be forthcoming, but they have been curiously silent about that for some time, and you don't even hear the FONX bulls talking about it, or rumors circulating to the effect that more are on the way soon.
IMO, the absence of more SOW's from Siemens, the absence of ANY other company to license FONX's core technologies, and the absence of any further patents tells me that this company is dying. Buying a couple of also dying companies has given them breathing room to tout products and revenues, but the likelihood that they will turn this into a profitable enterprise is very questionable. IMO, a buyout is the only hope, and I STILL can't figure out who would want to pay enough to make it worth buying the stock at this level on the chance that might happen.
Just things to think about!
Bob |
