What I understand is that POET is working very hard at the Anadigics facility. That facility is key to POETs immediate needs to produce the POET VCSEL. I used to think it would be a good use of funds for POET to purchase that facility but the reality is at this stage they don't need to. Does not mean I would rule it out but I fully expect that once POET has provided the industry with the evidence of a commercially viable product developed on the Anadigics 6in fab line they will shift all development work to San Jose. In only makes sense.
In terms of production the company needs fabs that have the capacity to run very large volumes of 6 inch GaAs wafers to meet the expected demands for the SR and VSR Active Optical Cables. Currently the only facility that we know of that has significant capacity with 6 in GaAs wafers is WIN Semiconductor. Win is currently doubling capacity in Singapore. Could an existing facility in operation at one of the larger SI fabs be converted in a timely fashion to meet early demand? Maybe.
So thinking ahead. The strategy of this company is to work with very large companies who will have the capacity to produce high volumes of POET chips. This management team will be looking at economies of scale and have no doubt engaged with industry to identify facilities that are older and have been fully depreciated. For example Global Foundries owns an older 6 in fab in Singapore that operates at larger nodes down to 40nm. That kind of facility would be a good example of a foundry that could be used to run POETs GaAs wafers with a relatively small investment. But the next step will be to go to 8 in wafers in order to meet future demands at even lower cost. There is little doubt in my mind that right now POETs partners are at least preparing their business cases to ensure that older facilities are not cannibalized but are maintained in good working order for a new life running POET wafers.
In terms of disclosure I think there are two elements at play. I am sure there is a lot that POET would like to say and will need approval to say about what they are doing with partners. But in addition I think we can all appreciate that the work load on this small management team has to be managed very efficiently so it would make much more sense for them to allocate time and schedule their communications with the market in a very orderly fashion. Disclosure should be managed very carefully and very efficiently.
So when we begin to look at efficient use of time and careful disclosure to avoid misstep then we come to this point in time. This has nothing to do with some kind of strategy to avoid the warrants being exercised. You take money when you can get it especially in the current financial environment.
The company is very aware of the need to provide information to the market and shareholders and they know that they need to do that very shortly to meet the commitments of a more granular view right after the “calendar year”.
