Okay, sorry it took a few days, Marketeye was closed on Friday when i sent off the email to WBT with your questions.
like last time, below is the full 'cut and paste' response from the 'written' questions from investors here. I also had a long phone conversation with Coby yesterday, talking around 35minutes...yep. there was alot to talk about and he did a great job. If I can confirm one thing, from reading between the lines and allowing his emotions/demeanor to add to some topics, Coby is very genuine, forget the noise. If I suspected any word wrangling or disingenuous response I would have pushed that but he was utterly genuine.
Super brief assessment, Dealing with the seeds brokers (I think I heard a neck vein burst when discussing them) is where hes focusing at present, heavy focus. We spoke about the seeds/brokers, Perlmutter, a little israeli politics, skimming over the tech. Im positive we have the equivalent of a2 milk of the dairy industry. I think Ive got a good understanding of our situation now (and need to write it all down before I forget.)
Interesting info re Perlmutter as per below. The response below doesnt mention but the 'odds' for Perlmutter to get into that political position will be very challenging apparently. fyi Israeli election early April. Coby spoke very highly of him, and Perlmutter thinks very highly of Coby/WBT.
Interestingly, should Perlmutter be forced to resign, there is someone of high reputation, maybe higher (his words), that is in the wings to fill the chair... Im suspecting he'll be staying on but who knows, seems interesting either way.
I still asked Eric/Coby to also answer your questions in their own words below so I couldn't accidentally misconstrue anything.
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I believe you a chat with Coby earlier. As requested, see below written responses to your questions. Let me know if you need anything further.
1. Is the data retention, as of now, at a level that is suitable as flash replacement for mobile phones, etc?
Yes
2. From the Aug 18, presentation report, Project timeline end 1st Q 19 'Process Optimisation Baseline improvement to achieve robust Technology parameter.' I think this refers to the 40nm module, could WBT elaborate on this with any specs/details. Is it now completed?
We already reported the key elements of this milestone when we reported the retention results in October and the endurance+voltage results reported in January. We recently got a new lot of wafers which we are checking and, if all goes well, we will update the market accordingly. Note that improving the parameters is an ongoing and never-ending task, as you have to keep getting better. Also note that the good retention and endurance results are what enabled us to start more serious discussions with customers.
3. The 28nm 300mm integration was projected for Q4, 19. Any chance of that occuring earlier?
This task takes long mostly due to the schedules of the fabs. Once you move to 300mm and you are not yet generating money, you are in low priority with the wafer suppliers and the fabs. We will, obviously, do whatever we can to do this faster, but we can’t guarantee anything
4. In relation to the estimated $5M NRE payment in the 'state one report.' (fwded by Marketeye)
a. Is this figure a reasonable estimate?
b. What are the milestones needed to be achieved before we can expect an agreement of this sort.
c. Would Mr Hanoch have any thoughts on the $1.40-$2.12 value StateOne places on the WBT SP (on the assumption Mr Hanoch has seen the report).
a. State One forecasted $5M license fees for FY 2020, i.e. till June 2020. This is an aggressive goal and is a theoretical target, but realistically we might need to give some big discounts to the first customers to get them over the “I don’t want to be the first” hurdle. So at this point it is hard to say if we can reach such a goal or if we will be somewhat lower.
b. The first milestone is to engage with a customer on an evaluation of the technology. The second goal is to engage with a production fab. And the third one is to reach 300mm wafers (for those customers which require it). We have been making progress on all these fronts and will notify the market when they are reached.
c. Weebit has been traded at these levels in the past, and competing companies which are clearly behind us in their progress are traded in these levels. The current share price doesn’t reflect the state of the company or its technical/business progress and is only a result of massive sales of shares by the seed investors. I can’t give any predictions on where the share price will be, but I believe that once the overhang will be removed we should be going back to a market cap that actually reflects the current state of the company
5. Mr Hanoch stated that the board were acutely aware of seeds selling and had various incentives in place to cover any further selldown. is it possible to elaborate on this?, we've seen further selldown and are now just over a week away from another 10mil shares being released.
The board was aware of the shares released from escrow and has spent significant efforts over the past year to find a solution for this problem. As the seed investors have not been involved with the company for a few years, and since we knew they have a tax event and also that they have set up new companies they needed to fund, we expected they would be selling, although we had no clue how much. The indications we got from them initially were that they would sell much less, but we never had any guarantees. We tried to set up buyer who would buy a block off-market in the past, but this didn’t eventuate. We are constantly trying to see if we can get such a block sale done and hope to be successful in the near future.
I wanted to add a few extra questions myself....
6. Im curious if WBT is going to use Dadi Perlmutter anytime soon to discuss WBT publicly, a Steve Jobs style black Skivvy may seem appropriate?
7. I noticed Mr Perlmutter is currently getting into israeli politics, is this going to effect WBT? will he need to seperate himself from the organisation?
has/would it be anticipated the SP fall since the consolidation effected its original intention to find investors?
Both questions are related, so I will answer them together. Dadi is a great asset for Weebit, and obviously a person who can drive major projects. As such, he decided to try to make a big influence in Israel by running for parliament and trying to make an impact at the national level. We respect this decision and, as an Israeli citizen, I wish there were many more people like Dadi in our parliament. If he is elected he will need to resign from the position as Chairman. However he will remain a major shareholder of Weebit and has made very strong commitments to us that he will not sell even 1 share of Weebit. He is a close friend and he will continue to advise us and also to open doors with leaders in the industry for us.
Knowing this could possibly happen, we have been talking to another very well-known person in the industry, so that if Dadi does need to resign we will have an equally strong replacement.
I understand if you cant answer this final awkward question, but naturally it is mentioned quite often. As the SP has fallen way beyond levels (Coby even defined it at 'on sale' at much higher SP than it is now), can anything be mentioned regarding accumulation/lackthereof at these levels by BoD themselves.
Most BoD members are substantial holders of shares in Weebit, or have a significant option package. In the last raise most BoD members participated and purchased more shares. However, as happens very often, the BoD is constantly exposed to inside information and there are many times during the year in which the directors can’t trade. We are now in such a period.
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