Tomorrow, page-3

Brick, good question, and as you indicate, a nice change for discussion. I'd think the most likely would be Bio-separations, soon followed by Clean Technology. But I'm not sure about the synergies, and know too little of the areas to suggest any name for them. After all, they could come under the "Anteo Technologies" banner quite happily. You wouldn't want to spawn too many subsidiaries - confusing, and the risk of too many overlaps. Such choices of subsidiaries and names would be driven by market perceptions and practices, I'd imagine.

So I think "Anteo Energy" is a clear and clean name. Carves out its area of interest, which is nevertheless extra-ordinarily broad, and in a crowded field. But the same is true of the term "diagnostics". Both work.

Of course, what we don't know is what else might be going on in the background. The battery research had been ticking along quietly, and the first we heard about it was only about six months ago.

In the last company presentation of 20 May, the slide about the six stages of revenue generation is really very important to understand, an understanding that has eluded many posters here, I believe. As you remember, the stages (with my ill-formed interpolations) are:

1. discovery (theory, and on the lab bench etc)
2. integration (into the relevant technology, but still within Anteo, and developing the "teaser" products)
3. uptake (early testing and evaluation of the "teaser" product by interested and approved prospects)
4. partner product development (e.g. POC1, and consulting revenues to Anteo))
5. partner clinical tests (for non-medical, read "beta-testing")
6. product launch (and royalty and/or licence revenues to Anteo).

Some may think there is a single step from 1 to 6. Others have quite reasonably questioned what has happened at Step 3 for many who have puffed, but not inhaled. The case is that for all kinds of reasons, thrashed over in previous threads, we can't expect that every early participant in Step 3, automatically and smoothly moves through to Step 6. As we surmise now with POC1, Step 4 has involved quite a deal of jiggery-pokery before Anteo was permitted to expand beyond the beads to see what it could do with the sensor surface as well. So it's not always an easy and regular transition from cup to lip - just ask Bill Gates about his early relationship with IBM!

But where I started on this point, is that we don't know what other initiatives are currently in Steps 1 and 2. And back to your point, Brick: what's next? And is it around Step 3 that a new subsidiary might be formed if appropriate?