Think back to all the times in the last 3- 4 years when we have had perceived bad news. Can you recall the hype before the Empire Club and the deflation afterwards. Remember those long periods without news and the complaints, the whingeing, the catastrophe mongers’ commentaries and the change when a news release stilled the palpitating hearts. Oh!, the stupidity of the management not telling us something and then how wonderful they were when they got Ajit Manocha on board. Even recently, the discovery that Mr Blevins is a VP from Apple and is on the TRAB and then the angst with delivery of the Q4 financials, not to mention the pulling of the BNN interview.

What can we make of all this. Well, I feel we are floating in darkness, in a cold bath of ignorance and, in such unfortunate circumstances, we can do nothing but speculate. One fact is: on June 12th. there’s an AGM and by then a lot of these questions will be answered or there’s a very difficult meeting in the offing.

A sputter machine is used to provide a thin layer of metal on a wafer substrate (in POET’s case a Gallium Arsenide wafer) during the manufacture of the layering required to produce the microchips, it’s an essential part of their production. If it’s faulty, then you get bad chips and it can be very difficult to work out where the fault is. Whether it causes months of delay I know not, but it will certainly cause some lost time. Why this was not mentioned at the time of the London investors meeting I know not, I suspect the problem’s solution was known some time ago and they are dependent on another company for its correction. I think, on reflection, it unwise to make shareholder announcements when you have a technical issue. Anyone who has been involved in product development will, for certain, know of problems of this sort. Really, you can’t undertake cutting edge research technology without glitches and they are often numerous; reporting these, on each occasion, to shareholders would be foolish, if not, disastrous for they have absolutely no way of evaluating the problem. Experience dictates that this management have been reliable over time and, if they say the problem was solved by March 2015, then it is solved. Remember these processes are an industrial secret and only a handful of engineers within PTK know enough to undertake such an evaluation. If it was a major problem, then Mr Blevins would be off and AM would look more than foolish.

I am also aware that other aspects of the development such as Design Technology Kits, the Synopsys and BAE connection are continuing without interruption. I would really like to know if there is a second FAB involved, I suspect there is. Lots of questions for an AGM if not addressed beforehand.

Looking overall, I feel there has been no change in the investment outlook. I suspect the current perceived delays and the withdrawal from BNN reflect altered or imposed management perspectives by requests for silence from prospective, powerful, interested parties. I interpret this as very hopeful, expect good news probably shortly. Again, I repeat, this is a revolutionary technology, of huge value to this industry and nothing stated, I mean nothing, has changed that.

David