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Verisk v Eagleview in a fight for Spookfish, page-7

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Whatknots

380 Posts.

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14/12/17

11:42

Post #: 29625632
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Originally posted by catchacold ↑

Verisk acquired Geomni less than 12 months ago to play catch up to Eagleview and are racing around the US to build out their library because they currently use Eagleview for this. Check out the recent fight between Eagleview and Verisk regarding Verisk infringing on Eagleviews patents. The SFI tech improves image quality substantially and decreases costs to a point that competitors can't compete.
At the moment the story is lost on most people because SFI haven't been able to announce much detail because Eagleview have restricted news flow of the US operations due to commercial confidentiality. This will change now Australian operations have started.

Let's be absolutely clear though. Current operators around the globe have their incumbent camera systems, they all say they are the greatest tech ever, which are no different from their competitors. SFI have designed a completely new system and patented it. Eagleview searched the globe for new technology and they found SFI. Trust me, you don't spend 2 years designing and patenting a new camera system that everyone else uses.

The key point here is the quality of the images and the altitude the plane is able to fly is much higher which means the cameras capture more area. This dramatically decreases capture costs while improving image quality. Remember capture costs are the greatest cost to aerial imagery companies so SFI planes don’t have to fly in restricted airspace or fly up and back on tight runs, their statement is capture continents not cities. SFI have for the first time designed a system that reduces these costs so much a $30bn private equity company called Vista Equity partners in the US, who own Eagleview, raced to tie up an agreement with SFI. Now Eagleview will be able to reduce their fleet of planes by 50% because the SFI system is so productive and at the same time the image quality opens up more revenue streams. This is why the royalty is paid on square miles flown + 10% of all new revenues generated.

The image quality SFI have created goes down to the pixel, this improves accuracy of images on the ground to exact measurements, as opposed to current competitors who offer within 5m parameters. This is significantly important for the insurance industry for structural objects they want to reinsure etc. This is where the huge money is made. So forget about the tiny roofers looking for a report to install solar, we are talking global insurance companies wanting this stuff and that’s what Verisk and Eagleview offer. It is also the reason SFI won the CIMIC contract. Let’s just say no one was in the same league as the SFI tender.

So if Eagleview tied up SFI in North America before it was finished and ploughed $20m of cash into a $70m market cap play, there is only one reason. No one in the world has what SFI have invented. Now they only got North America exclusivity so the rest of the globe is available until SFI get taken out. So if the world’s largest player wants a slice of the action, this is its best opportunity for Verisk to come to the party. Verisk have just announced expansion to Australia and China, coincidently that’s where SFI are expanding. Verisk and Eagleview are fierce competitors and if history repeats Verisk will definitely be looking at trying to take SFI out from under Eagelview. It’s no coincidence Verisk have now come out to identify an aggressive ramp up of oversea expansion right when Eagleview and SFI are launching.

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Thanks CC, interesting info. There is only one catch to Verisk bidding for SFI and that is the 19.9% blocking stake that Eagleview has in SFI (assuming Eagleview converts all options to shares). While this stake does not give them control or significant influence, it would not take much for Eagleview to aquire enough shares on market to reach the point where is does have significant influence and request seats on the SFI board effectively blocking any take over by Verisk.

Cheers,

SFI Price at posting: 7.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Not Held
1 Upvote

0 Great analysis

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