The turning point
posted on
Apr 03, 2020 02:58AM
I think yesterday's presentation by Tom represents a turning in how confident POET is to deliver.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
There has been a long legacy of that with this company. There is no question that a big part of Tom’s role at POET has been to throttle back shareholder expectation and as a group they have tried hard to provide a very realistic picture of the amount of work and time required to develop and commercialize a new technology (yes it is rocket science SP).
To correct the sins of the past no promises have been made based on optimistic projections. I think that goal has been met and whether we like it or not it was I think it was a necessary medicine.
During the AGM Q&A I made a statement rather than asking a question. I told the management team that the only reason the disruptive potential of the optical interposer platform was not represented in the share price was the lack of knowledge of what the technology is. The value it represents to industry in a world that needs lower cost, higher performance and the ability to quickly ramp production through existing fabrication systems. In my opinion the solution was to get that message to the right ears.
The industry leaders who they talk with are well aware of the advantages that the platform offers and they no longer have to talk in hypotheticals. The capabilities have been demonstrated so yes now they are at the design in phase for a product. One of the show me items that the companies need to have answered is “can you facilitate production to meet our needs”. That is an awesome position to be in especially considering the large pipeline of companies that are interested in being part of POET’s future. Some would no doubt want to license the OI platform and pay royalties to keep their lines in operation.
They get how transformational the optical interposer can be as it really pretty much checks every box of their needs without exception both in a technology sense, low cost and the ability to ramp throughput through automated fabrication lines.
Tom made statements in his presentation that marks a turning point. His confidence is now reflected in the progress that has been made.
The need for a POET solution continues to grow and this appears to be the right time to attract new investors.
The optical interposer platform has the ability to displace all existing optical integration applications and create new ones with very large markets. It’s a killer technology and is badly needed by industry. I think a lot of companies will not be able to compete and a win win solution might be for some to license the POET OI platform. That would certainly be one way to deal with an accelerated production ramp over and above POET’s capacity.
It is going to be interesting to see what comes about.