Originally posted by Sade
Hi All
I attended the 4DS AGM this morning. Unfortunately, Jim Dorrian could not attend but David and Howard were there. All resolutions were passed.
Following completion of the formal proceedings the board answered questions from attendees in a confident and measured way. My understanding of the information discussed during that session follows.
As a result of the first iteration they understand the challenges ahead and how to resolve them. The data produced allowed them to make the key changes early on, ensuring they are on the right path, thus saving time and money. The challenges are engineering and materials science issues and will take months not years to resolve. They are receiving data all the time and so can continually improve the technology, unlike biotech companies that must wait for the results at the end of a clinical trial before they can make any adjustments. They can also parallel workflow within each cycle (Iteration), thus allowing them to resolve issues quicker. There will be more iterations. In Q1 2019 they will have a better idea of the # of iterations required.
The 4DS technology has the functionality in all key areas and meets the characteristics required by WD.
No more credit raises are anticipated. Jim was technically correct in saying that they have sufficient funds for the full process with Imec. However, they wanted to show the market that they had the money to fund any contingencies should they arise.
2019 will be a very important year for the company and they hope to produce a mega-bite chip.
15 meetings were held with institutions in the US late in 2018. David described these as the best meetings they have ever had. These institutions have massive funds, are aggressive and knew all about 4DS, their technology (in detail), why the technology is important and their competitors. David remains in dialogue with these groups and will be visiting them in Q1 2019.
As a result of the 2017 Announcement, 4DS can speak to anybody in the industry that they choose.
After each announcement they make, 4DS receives enquiries from 2 industry players. Announcements are written so that the first 2 paragraphs are for share holders and the remainder of the announcement contains technical detail for industry.
Imec only works with companies that have a world class, leading edge technology that is going to produce generational change in the industry as opposed to improvements that will last 5 years. The technology needs to be scalable ie every 5 years they can scale improvements to the technology much like has been done with flash drives. This is a fantastic endorsement for 4DS. 4DS meet every week with Imec.
4DS have a great relationship with WD. The contract with WD is structured in such a way that WD receive 1st right of notification. They don’t hold shares in the company, this is good for 4DS as this would give WD voting rights when it came to decisions about takeover bids. The example of Spookfish was used, they were recently bought out by their partner who held shares in the Company resulting in a buy out price of $135 million when it could have potentially been $500 million.
There has been no fundamental change in reram for 30 years. Any success in reram by any company is good for everyone.
I left the meeting feeling confident in my investment.
GLTA
Thanks Sade,
Good summary. BTW, its Mega Bytes and not mega bites
Here's a few more things I have picked up in the meeting....
The board had expressed that their main end game is to help make profits for shareholders. They themselves are shareholders and have skin in the game, Thus they are all wanting this to be successful.
The 4DS technology is a revolutionary targeting at the storage class memory, Current technology in this space does not exist, and what they are doing is something new.
The first iteration problem they had was due mainly to moving from a development machine to a production machines. There is a difference between the two. There's technical difference between a 3 million dollars dev machine vs a 20 millions production machine. However, they have gain valuable data, and working with IMEC to resolve the issues.
They also gave a brief profile of who IMEC is. IMEC is a non-profit organisation, not just dealing in the technology space, they also due with agriculture, and many things. Their goals is to better human lives/ They have thousands of employees and their turn over in revenue last was something like 480million euros. Having IMEC working with 4DS is an endorsement of 4DS technology. 4DS are also having weekly technical meetings. The board of both IMEC and 4DS will meet in Jan 19.
4DS is also in a unique position with IMEC having being able to use their memory platform. IMEC does not deal with memory cells, this is where 4DS memory cells will come into play. Sounds like a marriage of two technology components to me.
In regards of WD, on top of the great summary Sade has already given above, what I have also gathered from the meeting include:
1. WD provides 4DS free access to their facilities
2. WD provides technical assistance, 4DS has been able to work under their guiding hands.
3. WD has validated 4DS techology, and the 4DS memory cells display the right characteristics they are after, thus the partnership
4. WD has been an ideal partner, with 5-6 years of relationship, they have been generous with their help
In regards to the recent trip to the US, David did 15 meetings. The US US folks clearly understood the technology and what 4DS is doing. The share price tanked after David left the US, largely due to the market and results of the first iteration.
David and Howard also spent some time sharing some technical details of the 4DS technology based on filament and moving of oxygen molecules. I did a quick search and found this article for those of us who are interested in the science behind this ReRam technology:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ab9e/ac53e28a7ab2876d19951aede12daf2560ff.pdf
4DS board is very positive about all the ReRAM activities done in the industry. They reckon the more information and successes in ReRAM, the better for everyone playing in this space. This is the new technology that will revolutionaries storage, lower power consumption, etc.
This is all I have to add on top of what Sade's great summary. Hope this blurb helps.
(20min delay)