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Technology Stocks : Optimal Robotics Corp. (OPMR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sir Auric Goldfinger who wrote (252)	7/26/2000 1:06:16 PM
From: Obewon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 325

Steve, why don't you at least bother to point out what you think the problems with the balance sheet are? Without that, flashing up a balance sheet showing $75M in cash and short-term investments and no interest-bearing debt is somewhat stupid and counterproductive to your short position. I would guess that you are referring to the large increase in accounts receivables and inventory. You did mention that inventories would be higher in a previous post and I concurred with you then. (Of course I ascribed a reason to why inventories would increase unlike your general and unsupported statement.) I have questions about both and am in the process of getting answers. From what I've found out so far, I appeared to have been right on the inventory issue as the opening of the manufacturing facility and soon-to-terminate PSC contract are resulting in higher than previous inventory levels. The high receivables may or may not be related to order timing and delivery issues. Management has indicated it is a timing issue and the snapshot provided by the balance sheet exagerates what was the average accounts receivable balance. (This may or may not be true depending on your belief in management - we have no evidence to prove them wrong or right.) Management indicates that DSO (days sales outstanding) averaged in the high 50's for most of the quarter eventhough it is in the 80's per the quarter-ending balance sheet. This indicates a back-end loaded quarter. While I concur that a series of successive quarters with high DSO along with low cash balances and poor operational cash flows may be a red flag due to liquidity concerns, it is obviously NOT a problem with OPMR since it has $75M in cash. As I stated over on the Yahoo boards (can't remember if I also stated it on SI), the rise in DSO outstanding could be due to increased volume sales to Wal-Mart which demands very favorable credit terms with vendors. Additionally, it could be due to the installation of the first three U-Scan Carosell (sp??) systems which occurred at the very end of the quarter and which have a much higher price than U-Scan Express systems. Obewon/Valuation Guy