A year in a tech start up in pictures and a few words
June 26, 2012
A door closes (sort of) another opens widerWe recently announced some big changes at ipernica - essentially that we will not be investing in any new IP assertion cases and focusing on nearmap as the future growth vehicle. I stress that ipernica has not been closed it still continues to operate and we continue to vigorously pursue closure on our existing cases and continue to make whatever resources are required available to achieve the best possible legal outcomes?
It's useful to add a bit more detail to this decision. I took a view when formulating this position with the Board that our number one priority is to set a course that maximizes the potential for shareholder return - the owners of our company are our number one priority long term. I feel we can achieve traction with the share price by consistently delivering results, working more effectively with brokers and other key groups and moving away from a legacy revenue model that delivers lumpy cash inflows plus is challenging to forecast from a business planning perspective. When we do achieve outcomes they are usually covered by non disclosure agreements so again not conducive to giving the market information.
The restructure is very unfortunate for those affected and I would like to say thank you to those colleagues who have contributed over the years and acted professionally throughout the transition phase. However reducing organizational complexity and cash burn remains a key focus for me and the new approach enables us to maintain any future upside whilst significantly reducing costs. I feel that is in the best interests of shareholders.
We are scheduling an EGM in the near future and one of the main objectives is to agree the change of company name from ipernica to nearmap. This is an important step as it enables me to clearly signal to the market that we are a business with a focused mission and our narrative will predominately focus on nearmap related activity.
On that front we are working hard on a number of fronts to retain customers, generate new business and attract top talent to the company -I am pleased with the progress we are making. The transition from a start up focused on a mass media market to a laser like B2B focus has not always been smooth but we are making progress. A key next step is the realisation of our goal to be a multi platform content play - we are working very hard on our new site which is being completely overhauled with a new UX plus the introduction of eCommerce look out for regular updates from the team as we move closer to our relaunch date for V1.0 of late September.
Plenty to do and I am satisfied we are on track...
http://nearmapceo.posterous.com/a-door-closes-sort-of-another-opens-wider#comment
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