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12:53
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Originally posted by fin11:
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Thanks for that unhelpful little snippet there Jasp. I may have also picked the new top. Some parting comments on the imec royalty situation. If I remember correctly, some people said that the fact that imec is now going to be paid in royalties is a vote of confidence. I just read the "imec contract renewal for 2022" part of the technical update. It is not very clear (and I'm a commercial lawyer), but my reading of it is that the 8% "royalty" arrangement has always been there, but now it is capped at 5 million euro / AU $7.8m. This "royalty" appears to be payable from 4DS licensing or sale revenues that occur while the imec agreement is on foot. It is a deferred conditional payment. Also, 4DS is aiming for a tech sale, not a licensing model (like WBT). So if 4DS sells the tech in the next year, this triggers the 5 million euro payment to imec. Second, it looks like imec is ALSO going to be paid 600,000 euro in cash for their work for the first 7 months of 2022. So if my reading is correct, imec is not substituting their fees for a "success fee", which would be a vote of confidence. Rather, they are being paid as usual, and are simply agreeing to accept a cap on the sale fee part of the arrangement. Their maximum "royalty" payment of $7.8m kicks in at a tech sale price of $97.5m (8% = $7.8m). If the tech sells for over $97.5m then imec gets no further payment. Could this be a suggestion that imec isn't expecting a massive sale price? If they were, why would they be happy to cap their entitlement? I may well be wrong in my interpretation, but jesus couldn't they at least make it clear in the update as to what is actually going on?
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You could also interpret the combination of royalty and "no established SCM market" as a "hint, hint, wink, wink" that an outright sale is not in shareholders best interests. Instead, the primary strategy needs to be on commercialisation and generating revenue.
