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Technology Stocks : Research Frontiers (REFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mama Bear who wrote (1140)	10/17/1998 2:56:00 PM
From: N. Dixon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50712

Barbara, One of the myths about REFR is that the technology has been ready for commercialization since Saxe took over the Land patent in 1965. That is not quite how it went. The technology was not anywhere near ready for commercial product until the early 1990s. This was the first generation of SPD. It was liquid not film. The first licensee we believed would begin commercialization efforts was Glaverbel in 1995 with rearview mirrors and then their corporate decided for reasons having nothing to do with SPD to hold off on the project. They are still a licensee and their decision had nothing whatsoever to do with the viability of the technology. If you need verification of this I would contact the project leader for Glaverbel Jean-Francois Thomas. He is located in Belgium and heads their Research and Development team. I heard from him in March that they were still interested in SPD and watching the current licensees efforts with great interest. It was this experience that caused many of the REFR longs to be so vigilant in checking with licensees as to the sponsorship from the highest levels. That is why we are happy to see Nadig (CEO of MSC) and Kim (President of Hankuk) make statements regarding their intentions to come out with SPD products. This is necessary for any new technology for no matter how good it is you need someone to manufacture it and to put their money and commitment behind it . We have that in all three licensees that are in precommercialization stage. Our current picture reflects the fact that in the last 7 years great improvements were made to the technology. You can see some of these through the press releases. We have new generations of particles and they are continually working to bring cost down. The three licensees who are coming out with product all seem to be reporting positive results to initial test runs and are at the stage where most of us anticipate a product on the market in 1999. So as you can see REFR has not been sitting on this technology for over 30 years. That is the misinformation that many of us have been trying to counteract. If you had been given that information it would make sense that you would be skeptical of the news that product is coming. Those of us who've diligently followed this company however are confident that SPD is ready for the market and now has the sponsorship required. I don't expect you or any of the other shorts to be convinced by anything said on the boards but I do want to make sure that everyone is dealing with the facts of the matter. It sounded from your post that you might be someone who was not aware of the chronology of events. ND