It is VERY clear that there is a high level of technical incompetence here as they suddenly implement new test procedures and find the mask is a major issue which has likely been there for years. The statement they made is to ensure that they cover their asses as much as possible to ensure they cannot be sued going forward, not for shareholders benefit. After all you cannot complain about a company that is producing a product for which there is no market and may never be a market for, they can say told you so it was your risk. Your investment is now a coin toss as the new etch mask may or may not work, they are back in the R&D phase and expecting a 1-megabit chip next year is just never going to happen from these guys, maybe in another 2-3 years at their rate of progress.
As far as jails for directors, the liklihood of going to jail in Australia as a director is pretty much zero, about the same as insider trading. It rarely ever happens and is not a deterrent. Only loss of money is a deterrent and they have not lost anything, they will just award themselves more oppies and be happy as, they cannot be easily sued as they never said much to investors in the ANN's they hid behind NDA's its the perfect scam.
I think the SP will get adjusted to reflect that at 3-4c would be likely fair value.
4DS Price at posting:
5.7¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)