15th Feb 2021 - Jeromy Young (Atomos Founder) retires to follow...

15th Feb 2021 - Jeromy Young (Atomos Founder) retires to follow "creative pursuits"
22nd Feb 2021 - Jeremy Young (Atomos Founder) sells 10,000,000 shares at $1.02
18th Oct 2021 - Christopher Tait (Exec Chairman) sells 636,260 shares (at $1.65) and exercises 217,670 options resulting in a net decrease of 418,581 shares
14th Apr 2022 - Estelle McGechie pulls the pin after less than 6 months in the role

Maybe some can interpret the above events as bullish but for me, when Founders/CEO's are quitting the company and the Exec Chairman is selling materials parcels something doesnt feel right.

Think about this, Jeromy Young spent 10years building Atomos. He then decides to pull the pin to follow "Creative Pursuits". I can understand why one may want to retire after living and breathing a single company for a decade. What is hard for me to reconcile is:

a) his decision to completely exit the company. He wanted no part of the board to oversee the stewardship of the company he spent a quarter of his life developing. Apparently a quarterly board meeting was too much for Jeromy
b) Jeromy immediately commences offloading his shares - hardly a ringing endorsement of the succession plan.

Separately, when Jeromy retires the board immediately appoints Estelle into the role. No executive search required. Now, with Estelle pulling the pin they scramble to give Trevor the acting role but decide he's not cut out for the top job and decide on an exectuive search. The Board has now effectively passed on Trevor twice.

I understand that Atomos Recorders are a lot more than Pro Res Raw recording but that is their "moat". Historically, if you wanted to Record ProRes Raw it had to be done through an Atomos Recorder as only they had the required licenses (Apple & RED). Now that is starting to change with Cameras providing internal ProRes Raw (i.e. no need for an Atomos). Yes, Atomos can still do custom LUT's, provide a bigger viewing screen etc etc but so too can a lot of other monitors....Just have a look at Amazon and you'll see that there are a lot of other players in the mix. Arguably, SmallHD is a superior monitor than Atomos but Atomos had a "hook" with its unique ProRes Recording and so the external recorder gained traction.

Don't get me wrong, ATOMOS still have a compelling product today but when you're buying a company at 10x EBITDA (at today's share price) you still need confidence in the long term prospects of the company. Key insiders pulling the pin on the company, selling down shares is hardly a bullish signal for me.