Brief highlights of the Shareholders Meeting.
from JP (this isn't a full recap, but just some topics from the meeting.)
Stay tuned for JPs full update sometime over the weekend once he flies back home. (He has 8 pages of notes taken during management presentations.) Also see hangdog's post in the last few minutes.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial draft, based on phone conversation ,so please watch for JP's post, which will superscede this one, for full details and any possible corrections to my notes.
We had a conversation that touched on just some areas of the presentations, here are some highlights from the best of my recollection:
Overall, a big difference from last year's SHM that JP also attended. More people, more interest, everything was more focused and detailed. There was a lot of visiblity of management, and a lot of transparency in that management took and answered a lot more questions. Meeting was a lot longer than last year too, ran over 3 hours. NeoMedia's SEC attorney was there, who reviews all of the filings, PRs etc for compliance, etc, and to be sure anything said is within SEC guidelines.
Management presented; Chas Fritz, Chuck Jensen, Martin Copus (JP commented a "brilliant asset"), and the gentleman in charge of NMPR (Paul G. . JP comment, He is a 28 year veteran of DuPont, very impressive). All presentations gave more detail than in the Power Point slides.
There are 13,500 NeoMedia shareholders.
Of the shares traded year to date, Cornell shares sold year to date equal 3.2% of total volume traded.
On the subject of Patents:
Emphasis on NeoMedia IP. Patents Rock Solid. Also, NeoMedia works daily on advancing not only the existing patents (including those acquired from LoyaltyPoint) but also new patents. I didn't write down the figure, JP will post, but something on the order of 30-40 more patents are in process, in addition to those already granted and pending. With the existing patents; NeoMedia is continuing to expand these current patents, and this will extend their "useful life" -not sure if that's the accurate terminology - for another 10-20 years. See the slides which go into some of the background etc for patents.
NEOM has the IP that covers the physical world to internet connection;
and there are search functions now in use by AOL, Yahoo, and Google that are "traversing" NeoMedia patents. (Yes. JP will comment further; but NEOM has been communicating with above on this. IMO "traversing" is the approved word that the SEC attorney authorized, instead of "infringing") ie see Paperclick powerpoint page 6.
Also on patents: Location based buying, uses GPS/location IP, ie those acquired from LoyaltyPoint, also uses NEOM IP, whether it is "automatic" or not..ie whether or not you have to enter your zip code. see again Paperclick slide p. 6....IMO that is huge also..
ScanBuy is doing the "heavy lifing" right now; let 'em. JP can comment on this further.
Another attendee commented on Paperclick slide p 36.
New employees starting next week, I believe; 5 in Paperclick, and 3 in NMPR.
On the subject of camera phones lens limitations
(we were discussing this on the message board this week.)
NEOM has been working with the lens OEMs about the specs needed. However, in addition, NEOM has been reverse-engineering the Paperclick software to bypass the current lens limitations. The software has been/is almost completed modified to control the auto focus feature of the camera phone lens so that it is capable of reading 1D barcodes. (This is big IMO) Looks like this issue is nearly resolved.
Comment was made that it is a "big mistake" by ScanBuy to have launched their product with these problems (ie lens focusing.) Recall from the scanbuy site that their product does NOT work without a special lens attachment.
Consolidation was mentioned regarding the mobile marketing industry; combining the enabling technology with mobile marketing. Discussed possible mergers/acquisitions/alliances in this space, relevant to NEOM.
Paperclick is free to the carriers; and can/will be private labeled - ie there's a powerpoint slide that has an example of Cingular GoWindow.
BSDS Revenues growing; $8 million rev's for fiscal year end July 05; projected rev's for fiscal year end July 06 of $12 million. (My note: recall the BSD filing of last night showing Aug-Oct 05 revenues of approx $2.2 million). This cash flow is significant.
The Quiet Period:
(Yes, there is one! for those few still not thinking there is one.) Once NEOM announced the Mobot LOI in July, during the filing period for the BSD registration statement, the SEC requested Mobot financials, thus, inadvertently extending the quiet period (as SEC needed more info to declare the BSD filing effective.) See JP's post for more on this as we didn't discuss much further.
Anticipate a major Service Provider contract in 2006.
