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http://blog.appliedmaterials.com/display-trends-2017-and-beyond
Soma Sankaran led sales from Singapore for Cree as their Regional Sales Director, South AP. Cree had over $1.6 Billion in sales.
You got to wonder why he would move to DenseLight?
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/CREE/0x0x850337/ECB59580-E0B3-4A63-B35D-894D450B2674/2015_Annual_Report.pdf
This was always going to happen. Very Positive. Nothing personal against jerry but under his watch DenseLight was being run into the ground. We acquired DenseLight for a song and now have "turnaround" mgmt in place to realise DenseLight true value.
I expect a technical update soon.
When Rennova Health Inc (NASDAQ:RNVA) announced mid December that it was pricing a public offering, the company took a considerable hit. Throughout the latter half of the month, and into early 2017, this decline continued. Late this week, however, Rennova started to run. The company currently sits around 36% higher on its year-to-date open, and on the back of a spike in volume, looks set to gain further strength as the week draws to a close.
So what’s behind the gains?
A couple of things are driving the momentum, but before we get into the detail, let’s outline the company and its operations.
Rennova kicked things off as diagnostics company in the substance abuse space. It was (and still is) a company that provides tests for urine and blood samples. Over the past 12 months, however, the company has expanded its operations and – in management’s words – attempt to secure more stable and recurring revenues.
A major step forward, and one that is probably driving the current upside momentum more than any other, is the acquisition of a rural hospital out of Chapter 11. That doesn’t sound like too big a deal right off the bat, but given this company’s current sales, and market capitalization, and then taking these in consideration with (albeit unaudited) 2015 revenues of the hospital it now owns, it looks as though the acquisition is going to make a considerable difference to the top line.
We first got word of the potential acquisition mid last year, when Rennova announced that it had put in a bid to secure the assets of a facility that had previously entered bankruptcy. At that point, however, there were a number of other bidders, and the company was unable to put forward any prediction as to whether it’s own bid was likely to be successful or not. Further, it didn’t reveal the scale of the bid, or its implications. Fast-forward to the end of December, and Rennova put out a press release announcing that it was set to acquire the assets of a facility called Scott Community Hospital – the facility alluded to earlier last year by the company, illustrating the fact that Rennova beat out the other bidders.
The deal looks like this:
In total, Rennova will pay $1 million to acquire the facility. This includes $400,000 to a local bank which has a lien on the property as things stand. The Bankruptcy Court ruled on the sale on December 23, effectively closing it in Rennova’s favor, and final closing of the purchase is expected to take place early this month (read: over the next week or so).
It’s a 25 bed facility with operating rooms, a laboratory and an emergency room, and includes a 52,000 sq. ft. hospital building and 6,300 sq. ft. professional building on approximately 4.3 acres.
For $1 million, that looks like a steal.
It becomes even more attractive, when you take into consideration what the facility was generating before it went into bankruptcy protection. In line with the above-mentioned 2015 financials, and again, these are unaudited, the hospital generated $12 million annually during that year. Rennova believes it can emulate these revenues consistently and reliably once the facility is up and running again, and the company is targeting a part reopening during the second quarter of 2017, and a full-scale reopening during the third quarter of this year.
In addition, and as a further growth driver throughout 2017, Rennova is now full owner of diagnostic entity Genomas, a company with a solid portfolio of diagnostics technology that fits seamlessly into the current portfolio of Rennova.
There are a few key points here.
This is a company that only generated $290,000 during the third quarter of 2016, and is currently valued at less than $10 million. By the end of this year, it should have a fully functional rural medical facility functioning, that has the potential (and should realistically be able) to generate $12 million annual top line. It has also just dramatically expanded its product portfolio by way of the Genomas acquisition, and has plenty of cash on hand on the back of its recent offering.
There is something of a reverse split risk, if Rennova is unable to boost its price above minimum bid. If things keep going up as they have the last few days, however, this risk should quickly dissipate.
Aves. Is this something familiar to you? Have you had a lot of experience?
http://www.iam-media.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=9c088c0e-3283-4f18-bc94-7fbd25f1b7a4
The signs suggest that IP monetisation activity is on the rise in Southeast Asia, says A*STAR tech transfer chief
Talk about IP value creation opportunities in Asia, and inevitably for most of us the first thing that springs to mind is China. More often than not, the 10 countries and 625 million people lying to the south of the Middle Kingdom that make up the Association of Southeast Asain Nations (ASEAN) are left out of the conversation.
On the one hand, there may be good reasons for that. If you thought the European Union has problems in achieving IP harmonisation between its members, then the task faced by its Southeast Asian counterpart can look insurmountable. To say the least, the IP protection landscape in some ASEAN countries leaves a lot to be desired. In less-developed member states like Laos and Myanmar, IP statute and infrastructure are next to non-existent; while in others, the lax enforcement of IP laws means that the situation is not much better. At the other end of the scale, though, the likes of Singapore and Malaysia offer some of the most sophisticated and credible IP systems in the world - not only in terms of legal protection, but also in the recognition and exploitation of IP as a business asset.
Taken together, the availability of relatively lower manufacturing costs, precipitous output in terms of public sector R&D, liberalisation of markets and increasing personal wealth of consumers make Southeast Asia a promising destination both for investment in locally created technology and monetisation of foreign IP assets. This is one of the reasons why IAM is hosting the first-ever IPBC Southeast Asia in Singapore on 3rd March.
These issues are also explored in more depth in a feature in the latest edition of IAM magazine, which subscribers can read online here. In the course of writing the article, I spoke to Philip Lim, CEO at Exploit Technologies (ETPL). In this role, Lim heads up the IP commercialisation and technology transfer arm of Singapore’s national R&D institute and top patent filer, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), so he’s in the thick of Southeast Asia’s rapidly developing IP landscape. Here is the full interview with Lim, exclusively for IAM blog readers.
What difficulties does ETPL face in trying to license and transfer its own IP in Southeast Asia?
One difficulty when trying to license or transfer our intellectual property and technology within the region or farther afield is related to geographical limitations that hinder our technical support. For example, timeliness in responding to technical support is challenging when a licensee is not located in Singapore. This is especially critical in the case of a proprietary know-how knowledge transfer.
More importantly, as A*STAR’s commercialisation arm, ETPL’s charter is to transfer or license our intellectual property and technology to locally based entities to achieve a wider economic outcome or societal benefit. Hence, our engagement with such entities goes beyond simply licensing IP rights to a deeper collaboration to ensure that knowledge and capabilities are successfully applied to achieve business growth for the company. I am sure the objectives are similar for all in all jurisdictions in the region and beyond.
What level of IP and technology licensing activity do you think is taking place in Southeast Asia?
The activities involving IP and technology licensing are complex and may not be that straightforward in measuring. Currently, we are not aware of any publicly available information on the amount and flow of IP activity within ASEAN. Our general perception is that IP activity is rising, possibly due to globalisation and a growing focus on IP-related issues. It does seem that local companies and R&D institutions are the key drivers for IP activity in the region, through licensing or IP transfer. We are also seeing more and more organisations engaging the services of third-party IP brokers where such organisations are lacking in internal IP capability.
Leadership set by respective governments is critical, especially in establishing legal structures, policies and enforcement of IP. This is the precondition for innovative activities such as R&D, inventions, new products, designs, new business models, brand development and other intellectual outputs. From these, an entrepreneurial environment will facilitate the translation of these outputs to economic outcomes. There is a strong correlation between countries with sound IP regimes and active IP licensing & tech transfer activities.
What is your advice to foreign companies seeking to license their IP in ASEAN countries?
To enable deals to get done, it is important that foreign companies provide a clear value proposition to local licensees that the IP helps the latter to be competitive or have a lead over its competitors.
A majority of our licensees are SMEs Smart use of IP can be a key business advantage for these companies, allowing them to leverage emerging technologies to gain competitive market advantage. To encourage technology adoption, A*STAR created a number of SME outreach platforms such as the Technology Adoption Programme and Headstart. The Headstart licensing programme grants local SME collaborators an exclusive, royalty-free licence for the first 18 months. This programme provides such SMEs access to practical and affordable technology and first-mover advantage, encouraging companies to participate in further R&D to create their own novel products and solutions. A*STAR also created ‘Simplified Licensing’ to provide greater clarity with terms that are pro-business, taking into account the operational and financial challenges of these locally-based companies.
In your view, what should governments and rights holders in ASEAN do to better exploit locally generated IP assets and encourage foreign investment?
At A*STAR, we have transitioned from a ‘technology push’ approach to engaging industry players early in the process so as to shape our IP or research capabilities to meet their needs. For example, A*STAR has many ongoing and upcoming research collaborations with industry that leverage on our existing IP and research capabilities. These collaborations also provide opportunities to develop foreground IP that is then adopted by industry collaborators.
Foreign investments are attracted to business environments that have, among other business considerations, IP rights that are enforceable and transparent. This requires a legal and regulatory framework that balances IP rights fairly between IP owners and users. In addition, continuing efforts, such as those by the Singapore government, to build a research talent pool help to attract foreign investments looking for capabilities to undertake research, which then lead to IP creation that can be further exploited.