Microvision: Growth Stock with 50,000% Profit Potential

I have always believed investing in companies that ride the wave of change or bring about the paradigm shift; with an eye on the long term growth prospects of the company.

In the last 30 odd years that I have been investing, I have had my share of good fortune and misfortune. However, what’s important is the fact that I managed to secure my financial future and live today to talk about my strategy of investing in companies that ride the wave of change or bring about a paradigm shift. Some of these companies─ like Intel, Dell, Qualcomm, and Cisco─ have grown to be huge enterprises and have made their early investors over 10,000% or more since their inception.

A while back I wrote a post about my 14,000% profit experience with Intel during its growth phase from early 80’s to the end of Dot.com era in the year 2000. Here’s the link to that post…

http://mirro7.blogspot.com/2009/09/intel-i-made-over-14000-profit-since.html

I’m one of those old timers that invested in Intel during its early days as a company… in the early 80’s. I recall buying some shares for a total cost of $1,000 dollars. I had to liquidate all my position in Intel during the Dot Com bust of 2000… around May of that year. However, it was not all that bad, because I managed to sell pretty close to the all time high and I remember bragging about my good fortune and fortitude to have stayed the course to make over 14,000% profit… for a net gain of over $140,000 dollars including dividends and the stock splits.

The past performers in my portfolio have served well. However, these companies like Intel, Dell, Qualcomm, Cisco, and Microsoft are past their hyper growth phase and are now too big and are just slow earnings growth vehicles. No disrespect to these fine companies… it’s just that they don’t fit the “hyper growth” company model any more.

One of my stocks holding now, besides an options income portfolio, is Microvision. I believe Microvision has the makings of the next 50,000% profit producer in the next 5 years or so.

Here’s why…

On Wall Street, you often hear terms like “top dog” or “first mover” in the context of a growth stock presentation to institutional clients. It’s quite interesting really…

A "top dog" is a company that dominates its industry... and a "first mover" is a company with a technology or product so revolutionary that it disrupts an existing industry and creates an entirely new one.

On the rare occasion that you find a company that is both─ both a top dog and a first mover ─ the chances are pretty good that you've found your next big winner...

Just think of eBay in the online auction market... Amazon in the online retail market... Netflix in the DVD-rental market… and Cisco in the router market… etc.

These companies redefined the way business was done, launched entirely new industries, and continue to dominate those industries to this day. And you don't need me to tell you how handsomely they've rewarded shareholders along the way.

In order to find companies that will deliver truly life-changing investment returns, you have to find growth companies early in their life cycle and truly believe that they are indeed the ones to ride the wave of change or bring about the paradigm shift… with potential of sustained long term growth.

Before we talk about Microvision as the growth company of the future with a 50,000% profit potential, let’s first consider…

Is now really a good time to be buying growth stocks?

The fact is; it takes guts to make money in this market.

But here's some good news…

For one thing, our current economic conditions bear a striking similarity to the economic downturn of the early 1990s. And Morningstar reports that during that recession, “growth” stocks more than doubled the return of "value" stocks.

For another thing, "growth” stocks can excel even if the broad market continues to stumble. In fact, the analysts expect better profit prospects for growth stocks than for value stocks.

Money for nothing...
We have to be realistic in our expectations when searching or investing in growth companies. The purpose of looking at the great companies listed above is not to show that growth investing is an all-win situation. Far from it!

The purpose of the illustration is to demonstrate how well great companies perform over a long period. If you can identify just one great company early, and then hold on for the long term, you can do pretty well for yourself.

Growth investing is highly volatile, and it will fray the nerves of those individuals with a low risk tolerance. Having said that, all investors should devote a portion of their portfolios to growth stocks. For those traveling in the fast lane, an allocation of 30% of their portfolios might make sense. More conservative types should allocate at least 10% in order to provide a little juice for their investments. I'm somewhere in between, so I devote about 20% of my portfolio to growth.

Microvision: Growth Stock with 50,000% Profit Potential

I believe Microvision has the makings of the next 50,000% profit producer in the next 5 years or so.

In order to become a very successful, profitable and huge company [in terms of market capitalization] you need the following pre-requisites:

Management: with expertise, vision, support network, past record, communicative and persuasive skills and a will to succeed.

In my opinion, we have the best possible management with all the pre-requisite attributes necessary for managing Microvision at this stage of the company’s growth. Here’s a link for your review…

http://www.microvision.com/about_microvision/team.html

Financially Sound: with money to support on-going operations, R&D expenditures, product development and commercialization.

According to the latest annual report for period ending December 2009, Microvision had $45.7 million in cash and short term cash instruments. Looking at the financials, the company is burning about $11 million per Qtr. At this rate, the company has about 4 Qtr worth of cash… assuming no additional revenue from product sales or contract payments.

Since we already have a SHOWwx product lunched in the US, Europe and the Asia Pacific region… I would venture to say that most R&D expenses have already been incurred [almost $300 million to date] and net profit from sales could reduce the cash burn by 3-4 million dollars per Qtr. That would stretch the available cash reserves to 7 Qtr or so. It’s ironic, but the investors of the past have funded this massive R&D undertaking to-date. However, the current investors will reap the benefits and are assured the company has cash to fund the on-going operations, product development and embedded PDEs commercialization.

Here’re some links…
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=114723&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1400178&highlight=

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=MVIS

Disruptive Technology: that can bring about massive shifts in “technology paradigm” and “social paradigm”. Each of the five products that Microvision is offering has the potential to cause massive paradigm shift in its own space of product applications.

Microvision’s core technology [PicoP Display Engine] is weaved into five product offerings and each of the product line has the potential of generating billions in revenue:

Vehicle Displays: for automobiles.
http://www.microvision.com/vehicle_displays/index.html

Wearable Displays: a see-through, high-resolution display platform that enables lightweight and fashionable eyewear displays for mobile devices. Microvision’s Color Eyewear platform allows mobile users to access their personal content and services while keeping their vision of the outside world free and clear, letting mobile users stay on the move.

http://www.microvision.com/wearable_displays/mobile.html

Pico Projector Displays: brings big screens to small devices. The Pico Projector or “PicoP Display Engine” can be embedded in mobile phones, laptop or similarly-sized mobile devices to enable upto 100” full color projection display [with DVD resolution] for applications such as streaming video, digital TV, high resolution photographs, and surfing the net.

Standalone Laser PicoP Projector SHOWwx:
http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/standalone.html

Embedded Unit:
http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/embedded.html

Applications Gallery:
http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/application_gallery.html

Military Displays: are used across various branches of the U.S. Military including the U.S. Army, and U.S. Army Reserve.
http://www.microvision.com/wearable_displays/military.html

Laser Bar Code Scanner: features a patent-pending, low-cost, shock-resistant, mechanical/magnetic laser scan engine.
http://www.microvision.com/barcode/index.html

Competitive Advantage: Microvision has over 115 U.S. Patents issued and 79 Patents pending to protect its intellectual property… giving it a huge competitive edge.

http://www.microvision.com/about_microvision/index.html

Technologically Feasible: Microvision has five different products in its portfolio. Each product has been demonstrated to be technologically feasible… with some being offered commercially.

PicoP Display Engine technology is based on the proven and mature silicon MEMS laser scanning mirror technology… as demonstrated by their commercially marketed “ROV” bar code scanner system.

http://www.microvision.com/technology/index.html
http://www.microvision.com/barcode/rov.html

The company recently launched the world’s first laser based PicoP projector SHOWwx in the US in March of 2010.

http://www.microvision.com/showwx/

Microvision has teamed-up with Asia Optical, a global leader in optical component solutions and contract manufacturing, speaks highly of the technological feasibility of the PicoP product. This collaboration focuses on leveraging Asia Optical experience in high-volume design and manufacturing to create a compact, manufacture able and affordable PicoP Display Engine product for Microvision customers. Ultimately, it is expected that PicoP Display Engine will be incorporated into a variety of applications and products in the automotive and mobile consumer electronic products.

The development agreement with Vodafone and Motorola is big for the following reasons…

The deal with the top tier cell-phone companies [Vodafone and Motorola] validates the Microvision technology and its business model.

The deal with Vodafone and Motorola are not exclusive [at this stage] and possibly is the beginning of a relationship that can easily grow into these companies taking equity interest in MVIS… or a possible buyout in the future. As the company [MVIS] has indicated, they are talking to several other large mobile phone and consumer electronics firms.

The top tier cell-phone companies [like Vodafone and Motorola] see value in announcing the relationship with Microvision at this stage of the product development… meaning that the product is within the spec for an embedded device for the cell-phones… and on schedule for early introduction in 2011.

Microvision launched the standalone PicoP projector SHOWwx in the US in March of 2010 and is on schedule to deliver the embedded unit for commercial production in early 2011.

Market Size: The market for PicoP Display Engine is huge. The potential markets are automobiles, mobile phones, smartphones, laptops, PDAs, iPods, iPhones, Pads, digital cameras, camcorders, personal mobile TVs, and the fashion eyewear.

Here are some world-wide statistics...
New autos: sales for 2007 … 49 million units
http://www.metrics2.com/blog/2006/12/28/world_auto_sales_flat_in_2007_china_becomes_no3_re.html

New Mobile Phone Sales: for 2007… 1.15 billion units
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=29702

New Laptop Sales: for 2007 … 207 million units
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132861-pg,1/article.html

New “PDA’s, iPods, iPhones, Digital Cameras and Camcorders”… over 300 million units

New Eyewear Sale: for 2008… 1 billion units

Personal Mobile TV/Projectors… new market opens up with potential 1 billion units
http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/application_gallery.html

Technology and Business Partnerships: Microvision has partnered with the biggest [financially], the most respected [for over 100 years] and the best in the business to design and manufacture its PicoP Display Engine for the automotive and consumer electronic markets.

Now what we need is a few more commercial business partners and OEM agreements for the PicoP Display Engine and Wearable Display product line. I am sure it will happen soon and when it does happen the MVIS stock will run up the charts as we have never seen before.

Microvision has the potential of being the “Top Dog” and the “First Mover” in the global PicoP projection market…

When investing in technology, always look for the “killer app”—yes, the software program, piece of hardware, product improvement or whatever—that makes the product stand out.

Take Internet browsers for example. Now, for a while there it took everyone some time to figure out what exactly an Internet browser was. Today, many of us can’t imagine what life was like before we had Google. These days, if you need information on any topic under the sun, you simply “Google” it! What would we ever do without Google?

When looking to buy the latest tech stock, investors [you] need to scrutinize the product and the unique ability it offers to its users. Google is a great example of a “killer app” that revolutionized the Internet.

So what’s Microvision’s “killer app”?

It’s the “Disruptive Technology”; that can bring about massive shifts in “technology paradigm” and “social paradigm”. Each of the five products that Microvision is offering has the potential to cause massive paradigm shift in its own space of product applications.

What makes Microvision’s PicoP Display Engine technology as "Killer app" in simple terms?

1. Always in-focus image that needs no adjustment when on the move or when moving to change the projected image size… due to inherent feature of laser projection.

2. Longer projection periods per battery charge… by switching-off the laser light source during periods of dark picture segments.

3. Cool to the touch and no waste heat generated… due to modulating lasers as light source.

4. Large projected images [up to 100”] in widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9.

5. High resolution image [848x480] at 10 lumen brightness… with pathways to high definition images at 20 lumens or more brightness.

6. Dramatic cost reduction [with huge profit margin improvements] as the laser light technology matures and economies of scale are achieved.

7. Small physical size that starts out small and gets even smaller from one generation to the next.

The PicoP Display Engine can be embedded in hundreds of different products representing a huge market share for entire product line-up. It has the potential of adding billions of new dollars to Microvision—expanding what I like to call the “halo effect” from the PDE to the rest of Microvision product line of applications that are currently under development.

Yes, investing in technology can get complicated. Many advisors compare the stock price to the company’s earnings and cash flow, and then look at earnings growth trends and the company’s debt levels in comparison to its competitors. This is some in-depth analysis for the average investor!

Well, Microvision has very little earnings and cash flow from current sales; so you have nothing to analyze. Consider yourself in good company: Billionaire Warren Buffet doesn’t invest in technology because he doesn’t understand the fundamentals of the business. That is why he has missed out on billions of dollars in potential profits from the likes of e-bay, Google and Apple. So, if you’re waiting for revenue and current cash flow from your Microvision investment, there is none for all analytical purposes.

But that will change in the next Qtr when the earnings report will show increasing sales of SHOWwx projector from the US, Europe and Asia Pacific region.

When it comes to emerging technology from companies with small capitalization, don’t do what Warren Buffet does. Do your own DD and then take a small position in Microvision for its emerging technology and huge profit potential in the next 5 years.

Is Microvision ready for prime time SHOWwx time and worthy of your investment dollars, consider this…

Five years from now in 2014, the stock could easily trade in the $300 to $500 range.

Here’s an educated projection…

• Worldwide Market Size: 2 billion units [cell phones, laptops, smartphones, iPods, iPhones, iPads, camcorders, digital cameras, gaming devices, and mobile TV/Projectors etc.]

• Worldwide Market Size: 1 billion units [wearable see thru displays]

• Market Adoption Rate: 10%... 300 million units

• Microvision Market share: 15% of 300 million units… 45 million units

• OEM price: $90 per PicoP Display Engine

• Revenue: $4 billion

• Net Profit Margin: 40%

• Net Profit: $1.6 billion

• EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization: $1.5 billion [with operating expenses at $100 million]

• Interest Expense: $0 million

• Interest Income: $20 million

• Tax: $220million

• Depreciation: non cash and very small

• Amortization: non cash and very small

• Net Operating Income: $1.3 billion

• Earning Per Share: $13 on a fully diluted basis [100 million shares]

• Price Earning Ratio: 30 for a hyper growth company

• Price Per Share: $390 per share

In my book, the “Risk” is insignificant [may be 2% per year interest in treasury bills as the lost opportunity] as compared to the potential of making over 100 times your money in the next year 4 to 5 years.

Anant Goel
http://www.wealthbyoptions.com/

Microvision: Missing from Mobile World Congress meet in Barcelona – February 15-18, 2010

Mobile World Congress is being held in Barcelona [Spain] from February 15-18, 2010.

Here’s the link...
http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/sponsors/sponsors.htm

Last year, Microvision was there as one of the exhibitors and got some very good reviews for its laser based PicoP projector SHOWwx...

http://vimeo.com/3340611

However, this year Microvision is not at the Mobile World Congress meet.

Do you know why?

That’s right... because Vodafone is there as one of the sponsor of this event. And Vodafone is Microvision’s first Mobile Phone Carrier customer.

Here’s the link to the post on this subject...
http://mirro7.blogspot.com/2009/12/microvision-vodafone-is-first-mobile.html

Looks like things are finally coming together as they should be; at this stage of product launch.

Anant Goel
http://www.wealthbyoptions.com/

Microvision: Protect Your Intellectual Property Part 3

I hope you read part 1 and part 2 on the subject of “Microvision: Protect Your Intellectual Property”. If not, here’s the link to those two posts…

http://mirro7.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Part 3 is all about communicating the observations that some folks [besides me] have made over the last few months and most recently at the Annual Stockholders Meeting [ASM] on September 15th.

Microvision Wants to be Major Player in the Imaging Market Place:

“Laser steering projector is the bread and butter of Microvision for the foreseeable future and we are going to focus on the embedded PicoP to make the company profitable.” … Believed to be the words of Alex Tokman, CEO of Microvision, at the Annual Shareholders Meeting!

“Microvision is positioning itself thru patents and IP to be a major player in the image community. He (Alex) said: “Microvision is not going to be a small component provider that can be marginalized by bigger players.”

Alex sees Microvision as an INTEL type company. He is going to make the company a major player in the image industry. That may very well explain the “Image by PicoP” as the slogan chosen for the world’s first laser based PicoP projector SHOWwx. Please read my post on…

Yes Virginia: “It’s Intel Inside… but Image by PicoP.”
Here’s the link…

http://mirro7.blogspot.com/2009/09/yes-virginia-its-intel-inside-but-image.html

In my humble opinion, Alex Tokman is set on a course to turn Microvision not only like an Intel… but also Qualcomm at the same time.

Here’s why…

First, the observations we have made over the last few months…

“The slides on patents and IP at the ASM were probably the most interesting of all the slides in the presentation.  We have seen earlier versions of these back in May 2009.  These slides showed a marked increase in patent filings by the company after Alex Tokman took over as CEO.  However, now there also seems to be a renewed and significant emphasis on bigger picture kinds of claims regarding things like applications.  Most all of the early patents were about hardware and how you make the hardware work... and it is those patents that got Microvision on the IEEE Spectrum and Wall Street Journal [The Patent Board] list.”

So, why this emphasis on “bigger picture” kinds of claims including things like “applications”?

I think the answer lies in the CEO’s head and from time to time is reflected in his actions and statements.  I won’t be surprised to see more patents coming out of Microvision that also cover services and applications… besides the PicoP display engine hardware. It is possible that in the future, Microvision business model may resemble, in some ways, that of Qualcomm.  Qualcomm business model consists of “chip sales” along with the sale of “Intellectual Property Rights” for innovative Applications and Services to the wireless companies.

• Alex Tokman sees Microvision as an Intel type company

• We will [not] get marginalized by bigger OEM players that we may some day call customers
• Choice of marketing slogan like: “Image by PicoP”
• Bigger picture claims that include “applications” of PicoP in their hardware type patent applications
• Early development of PicoP Evaluation Kit [PEK]
• Aggressive marketing [and sales] of PEK for a broader applications Value Added Resellers.

Eventually, in my opinion, Microvision may not only be selling PicoP display engines and associated components… but also selling “Intellectual Property Rights” to innovative Applications and Services built around their PicoP display technology.  That’s one sure way of [not] getting marginalized by bigger OEM players that it may some day call customers… like Apple, Motorola, Sony, Nokia and so on.

I have known about Alex Tokman for many years before he came to Microvision. However, the news about Alexander Tokman coming on board as the new President and COO of Microvision caught my attention, and subsequent interest in Microvision, as I have known of him from his days at GE. What Tokman did at GE was quite remarkable.

“Alexander Tokman joined Microvision in July 2005 as a President and COO.  Tokman was responsible for managing Microvision’s operations, including sales, marketing, research and development, and supply chain. He was named President and CEO in January 2006. Tokman, a 10+ year GE executive, joined Microvision from GE Healthcare, where most recently he served as General Manager of Global Molecular Imaging & Radiopharmacy—a self-contained, global multi-technology business unit. Over the past five years at GE Tokman defined, developed, and successfully commercialized several new technology businesses including PET/CT, which added $500M+ of organic top line growth to the company within the first three years of its commercial introduction.”

Having said that, and knowing what little I know about Alex Tokman, I can confidently say that he has the vision to see the huge potential Microvision’s PicoP display engine [laser-scanning 1 MEMS] technology offers as the leader of the pack.

That’s right, leader of the pack!!!

Here’s why…

“…in view of the limitations and image quality issues associated with current Pico display technologies being offered or being pursued by others.”

TI is stuck with DLP technology, 3M is pushing Color Filter LcoS technology, Syndiant is working with light panels on LcoS technology, Expaly is working with laser based LcoS technology, Micron Displaytech is working with FLCOS technology, bTendo [2006 start-up] is working with laser-scanning 2MEMS technology , and Maradin [2007 start-up] is working with laser-scanning 1 MEMS technology.

The only two Pico display technologies on the market to-day are: DLP by TI and LcoS by 3M… the rest of the rat pack are still “working” on their R&D.  While there are some interim Pico projectors based on technology such as color filter LCOS [ 3M technology] and DLP [TI technology] that were in a position to get to market earlier… but they have major drawbacks in fulfilling the size, power, image quality, resolution and always in focus requirements of the market, particularly for embedded devices. We are already seeing color filter LcoS products being designed out in favor of field sequential LcoS and many former “DLP-only design houses” also have field sequential LcoS designs underway.

Syndiant [2004 start-up] talks “big game”, at their website, about light modulating panels that use Field Sequential LcoS [FSLCOS] to provide a very high resolution display that will be always be in focus when RGB lasers are used as the light source.  Currently, however, they use, so they claim, LEDs as the light source. It is interesting to note that Syndiant Pico projectors are not on sale yet and we haven’t seen any of their projector demos at any of the trade shows thus far. 

"In summary, if we are to believe everything that we read at Syndiant’s website, then all the competition, including Microvision, should pack-it-in… because Syndiant’s technology is so much superior and costs so much cheaper."

However, before we recommend that competition to Syndiant, including Microvision, should pack-it-in and move-on to some other un-charted technology frontier… we should look at the Intellectual Property of Syndiant that they should have, really, to protect such a valuable technology.  Our patent search found the following…

• Syndiant: No Patents found

However, Syndiant claims, at their website, to have four (4) patents.   In reality, it seems they may have only one patent issued in four different countries... the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia.

“Syndiant has achieved four patents in the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia relating to the digital backplane and various methods, systems and devices for controlling a digital backplane, light modulating elements and spatial light modulators. Syndiant has a number of other patents pending.”

Here’s the link…
http://www.syndiant.com/tech_faqs.html

• Microvision (1 MEMS): 557 Patents (among those are a massive amount of World Patents and European Patents).  Patent search shows 557 patents [World Patents] for Microvision. That number is rather too high… may be due to other “Microvision” named companies that got wrapped-in the search. The latest number of issued patents is like 115 plus many more on file.

• Maradin (1 MEMS): 2 Patents (World Patents included)

• bTendo (2 MEMS): 2 Patents (World Patents included)

• Micron Displaytech (FLCOS): 144 Patents (World Patents included)

• Explay (LCOS): 29 Patents (World Patents included)

• 3M (LCOS): Very large number among hundreds of Patents

• Texas Instruments (DLP): Very large number among hundreds of Patents

• Light Blue Optics (Holographic Laser Projection): 59 Patents (World Patents included). They're using Micron/Displaytech FLCOS technology.

Now you be the judge!  All that wonderfull Syndiant technology with everything "superior" and basically "no" patents?

In any case, Pico projector for mobile devices will be a huge market.  All Microvision needs, to become a huge financial success is a small percentage of the overall market adoption rate.  In my humble opinion, Alex Tokman is set on a course to turn Microvision not like an Intel… but also Qualcomm at the same time.

Here’s another reason why…

Microvision has been at it for over 14 years and has spent close to $250 million dollars to-date on Research and Development of its single MEMS laser-scanning PicoP technology in one form or the other.  Along the way, I am sure, it has explored the dual MEMS and multitude of different combinations that come to mind. Some of these alternative technologies, I’m sure deserved ample lab time before being put on the back-burner… while others were explored and discarded without even making it to the lab.

Alex Tokman mentioned a few things as to why he believes that Microvision’s PicoP display engine is going to be successful…

• Uniqueness: nobody has lasers… nobody is doing what we are doing.

• Thin Form Factor: nobody has our size and nobody can do HD images without getting bigger.

• Longer Battery life: up to 2 hours currently vs. 45 minutes for the competition.

• Infinite focus: nobody else has it.

• Larger screen experience: from 12” to 150” diagonal under certain ambient light conditions.

• Superior small font readability: we are the only one that has 8 pt readable fonts.

• Uniformity of brightness: Images are uniformly bright from edge to edge, unlike some other competitors.

• No rainbow effect and virtually no speckle.

• Twice the color gamut (range) of NTSC

• WVGA resolution with sharper image detail and fast refresh rate

Corning and Osram [the two supply chain partners] are not only improving the laser light technology, but performance and price as well.  The next generation of Green Laser [Corning GL-2000] and Microvision PicoP display engine will bear this out.

“With the enormous size of the future Pico projector market [in terms of units & dollars] the financial rewards will certainly attract deep pocketed competitors that will infringe [and engage in unscrupulous deeds] to test your resolve, create distraction, put financial burden of litigation… all in the hopes of extracting a cheap, if not free, licensing agreement from Microvision.”

With that in mind, the questions to ask are…

• How well Microvision is prepared and how it plans to fend-off infringement to its Intellectual Property in the future… for the sake of its future?

• How serious Microvision is in not only selling PicoP display engines and associated components… but also selling “Intellectual Property Rights” to innovative Applications and Services built around their PicoP display technology?

• How strongly Microvision CEO believes in his own statement about [not] getting marginalized by bigger OEM players that it may some day call customers… like Apple, Motorola, Sony, Nokia and so on.

The availability and quality of green lasers will be crucial not only to the viability of Microvision’s PicoP display technology… but also to its financial success as a growth company.  The most recent news about green lasers only reinforces my belief that Microvision will be a huge financial success…

Japan's QD Laser has developed a compact green laser that could energize the market for high-definition micro projectors.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Saturday, October 10, 2009 06:00 PM PDT

Here’s the link to the news article…

http://www.pcworld.com/article/173455/green_laser_developed_for_microprojectors.html

What’s so significant about this news is…

“QD Laser is planning mass production next year and the laser should cost around US$10, said Mitsuru Sugawara, the company's president and CEO, during an interview at Ceatec. That will make it significantly cheaper than the only other competitor on the market, a micro green laser from Corning, according to Sugawara.”

Famous Paul Masson once said: “We will sell no wine before its time.”

This slogan applies very well to Microvision’s lauch of the world’s first laser PicoP projector SHOWwx on September 15th, 2009.

And the good thing is: “It only gets better with time.”

Anant Goel

http://www.wealthbyoptions.com/

Microvision: Protect Your Intellectual Property Part 1

Today, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, Microvision has been ranked #43 worldwide in the electronics & instruments industry for the strength of their patent portfolio by “The Patent Board”, the leading independent provider of best practices research, tools and metrics for patent analysis and intellectual property investment.

According to The Patent Board, Microvision had a 29% increase in patenting and a 38% increase in Industry Impact™ this quarter.

Here’s the link to The WSJ/Patent Score Card from this morning…

http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-macromkt.html?mod=topnav_2_3000

Monday, September 28, 2009

Companies and private research firms are grouped by their Patent Board technology strength ranking which is based on the scale, quality, impact, and nearness to core science of a company’s patent-based intellectual property. This overall strength rating factors in both qualitative and quantitative aspects of a company’s patent portfolio.

Continue on to the Score Card…
*****

If you have been reading about the recent buzz about Pico projectors, you will know that the laser based PicoP display engine/projector market will be huge in the next few years. And sooner or later the competition will recognize that laser based Pico projection produces the most desirable and always in focus images. Laser based Pico projection is the way to go… and single MEMS will be the least expensive and scalable solution to the huge potential markets world-wide that is more the 2 billion units per year large.

With that in mind, the question comes to mind: “How well Microvision is prepared and plans to fend-off infringement to its Intellectual Property in the future… for the sake of its future?” Microvision is the only company, as of this day, that produces the RGB laser based single MEMS PicoP display engine/projector on this planet.

With the enormous size of the future Pico projector market [in terms of units & dollars] the financial rewards will certainly attract competitors that will…

Having said that…

• Blatantly infringe on Microvision patents;

• challenge the validity of Microvision patents;
• claim conferring a “negative right” upon Microvision;
• claim Microvision as “patent troll”;
• and of course develop their own portfolio of “petty” patents to “fragment” the Microvision IP portfolio.

What’s needed is proactive, relentless, ruthless and effective IP portfolio management at Microvision… something similar to what was successfully done [and continues to be] at Qualcomm. The most effective and the least expensive way to do that, is to go out there and hire a senior patent engineer from Qualcomm and appoint him/her the CPO… the Chief Patent Officer at Microvision.

Why Qualcomm you say?

Well consider this from personal experience…

“About 12 years ago, I had the opportunity of managing a semi-conductor company about three miles away from Qualcomm in San Diego. During the course of my tenure I made friends with a few Qualcomm executives and learned a few things about their patents and IP management as an asset… especially with a serious understanding of their company’s major [if not entire] business model that was based around licensing and royalty.”

“I still remember the “lobby wall” at Qualcomm with over 850 issued patents [currently over 1,200] framed and displayed proudly. Qualcomm’s patents were for CDMA technology and at the time [in 1996] they knew it would some day power billions of cell phones worldwide. Qualcomm managed their IP assets proactively, relentlessly, ruthlessly and very effectively… that is until recently before the Broadcomm debacle which cost Qualcomm $891 million dollars in IP infringement litigation and damages cost.”

The Wall Street Journal/Patent Board is the leading independent provider of best practices research, tools and metrics for patent analysis and intellectual property investment. The Patent Board’s team of experts, deep pool of knowledge and foundation in core research provides its clients with valuable insight on patent-based IP strategies. The Patent Board leadership is advancing the value of patent knowledge to both inform business strategy and to help define patent assets as the next critical financial asset class.

That’s a mouth full. The bare naked truth of all this for Microvision is…

“With the enormous size of the future Pico projector market [in terms of units & dollars] the financial rewards will certainly attract deep pocketed competitors that will infringe [and engage in all the above unscrupulous deeds] to test your resolve, create distraction, put financial burden of litigation… all in the hopes of extracting a cheap, if not free, licensing agreement.”

With that in mind, the question to ask is: “How well Microvision is prepared and how it plans to fend-off infringement to its Intellectual Property in the future… for the sake of its future?”

Anant Goel

INTEL: I made Over 14,000% Profit since 1981 by Investing in Intel Stock

I’m one of those old timers that invested in Intel during its early days as a company… in the early 80’s. I recall buying some shares for a total cost of $1,000 dollars. That was lot of money in those days and commission paid was a disgrace. Stock brokers were king of the hill and roamed the streets like God’s gift to humanity.

I had to liquidate all my position in Intel during the Dot Com bust of 2000… around May of that year. I think it was just before the last stock split the company had. However, it was not all that bad, because I managed to sell pretty close to the all time high and I remember bragging about my good fortune and fortitude to have stayed the course to make over 14,000% profit… for a net gain of over $140,000 dollars. That’s right… over $140,000 in profit including dividends and the stock splits.

I always believed in investing in companies that ride the wave of change or bring about the paradigm shift with an eye on the long term growth prospects. In the last 30 odd years that I have been investing, I had my share of good fortune and misfortune. However, what’s important is the fact that I managed to secure my financial future and live today to talk about my strategy of investing in companies that ride the wave of change or bring about a paradigm shift. Some of these companies have grown to be huge enterprises and have made their early investors, like me, over 10,000% or over since their inception. Some day, I will tell you about my other [early] investment in companies like Dell, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Cisco, Healthsouth [after the 2003 perfect storm] and most recently Microvision. And while Dell has had disappointing returns since the turn of the century, its business is still strong and investors have not even come close to losing everything.

Currently, I’m out of all the stocks except Microvision [Nasdaq: MVIS]. The past performers in my portfolio have served well. However, these companies like Intel, Dell, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Healthsouth are past their hyper growth phase and are now too big and are just slow earnings growth vehicles. No disrespect to these fine companies… it’s just that they don’t fit the “hyper growth” company model any more.

My only stock holding now, besides an options income portfolio, is Microvision. If you would like to find out why I consider Microvision to be the next 50,000% profit producer, then click on the link to my blog post and make sure to read all the related articles.

Access to my blog is free and my profile will tell you why I’m taking this time and making an effort to reach out and share information that already exists in the Internet sphere…

http://mirro7.blogspot.com/2009/09/microvision-from-here-to-picop-ubiquity.html

http://mirro7.blogspot.com/2009/09/yes-virginia-its-intel-inside-but-image.html

Anant Goel
http://www.wealthbyoptions.com/