Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Larry Brubaker who wrote (5224)	11/17/1998 12:44:00 PM
From: kolo55	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

You are mis-interpreting Fred's post. Of course, Fred could have been clearer in his post. <<What's interesting about line 1 is that it has been producing laptop batteries for many months that have been stored, tested and sampled. I believe some customers have have had versions of its product since May.>> FMK: Would you mind disclosing your source for this information? This directly contradicts the statement Lev made during the August conference call. When he said they were in the process of completing a major redesign of Line 1 and had yet to run the line as an entire unit. So, please explain how they could have been providing samples from the assembly line in May when it was still being redesigned and had not been run as a unit as of August 17. My interpretation of Fred's post: The 'versions of its product since May' that OEMs received were produced in Henderson. June 30 call: Lev told us in the June call that Henderson was producing and shipping samples to OEMs, although OEMs had not received all their allotments at the time of the call (june 30). At that time Lev said that he hoped to have replies from customers within 60 days (end of August); that they had done extensive testing inhouse and are 'reasonably optimistic the results will be favorable' but that 'customers have their own time table'. He said 'the biggest hurdle for the company is going through the OEM qualification process' and implied that they were in that process at that time. Lev indicated that the Henderson processes are the same as NI, except that the final battery assembly is 'by hand'. Also in the june call, in response to a question about whether they could have volume production in NI by the end of September, Lev said something like 'September is a very good estimated date for shipping batteries.' but that this of course 'depends on customers'. August 12 call: Lev said that Henderson has been supplying samples to 14 potential customers. Some of the customers have been cycling batteries for some time, and he expects to hear something in the next several weeks. He wasn't pushing customers to make decisions until they have batteries from NI in hand. Customers hadn't received any batteries from NI at that time. He expected that NI would be producing some batteries in the next 30 days, then quarantine for 30 days before shipping. When asked later in the call whether they were on-schedule for production by the end of September, he said that they had been somewhat behind schedule for volume production. He said that they had made up about 1 1/2 weeks on their schedule, and were very optimistic about production, but 'could still run into problems and need a technical fix that might delay about 1-2 weeks. November 11 call: The large battery line in NI is operating (but not continuously), and batteries are being sampled. Later in the call: 'We are running every part of the production process at this time, and are satisfied with the batteries produced so far'. In response to questions whether customers had received batteries from NI yet, Lev said that he could not comment on that at this time. Lev did say at another point in the call, that they have sent batteries (samples) almost exclusively to portable computer makers and to military customers. He also made some comments about Valence having a good sense of where they stand on customer tests (parameters?) and check these inhouse extensively. Timing of testing varies quite a bit from customer to customer. Some of the posts here and on the Yahoo thread I believe give the mis-leading impression that it will take many months from the time customers receive batteries from NI until tests are complete enough to negotiate contracts. From looking at Lev's comments on this issue in all three recent conference call, I think this is incorrect. Larry, I'm afraid you've 'faked' yourself out of the stock by the 'no comment' made by Lev during the conference call and by the variable conversion clause in the financing. I think that NI has shipped significant quantities of batteries at this time, and this is why Lev couldn't comment. Valence's customers will control the timing of the release of information on shipments and contracts, at least until the next Q report. This is only my interpretation of comments made in previous conference calls, and based on my own startup experience; I don't have any inside information on this. Paul