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Microvision’s Q4/FY 2008 Conference Call Scheduled

February 27th, 2009
by Tiffany Bradford

Today we announced the date of our fourth quarter and full year 2008 earnings conference call. Details are included below for your reference. As those of you who have listened to our previous calls know, we usually host a Q&A session during the call. Sometimes we may not be able to take every call in our allotted time.

Hence the reason for today’s post–we want to hear from you. What questions do you have? What topics do you want to hear about? What messages need clarification? Please post them here or email me at IR@microvision.com and I’ll aggregate your responses with the goal of addressing topics that matter to you on the conference call.

Microvision, Inc. Q4/FY 2008 Conference Call
Thursday March 5, 2009 4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT

Dial in (866) 730-5769

International Dial in: (857) 350-1593

Passcode: 62247192

Webcast access: www.microvision.com/investors

Tags: conference call, Investor Relations

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Investor Relations.
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27 Responses to “Microvision’s Q4/FY 2008 Conference Call Scheduled”

Thomas Shugrue Says:

February 28th, 2009 at 11:49 am |

Question for CC :
What is the likelihood of additional financing that will add to the total amount of MVIS shares in the next year?
Rick Nutal Says:

February 28th, 2009 at 6:31 pm |

How many companies are interested in the product as a stand alone at this point in time? How many companies are interested in the embedded projector at this time?
How many prototypes were sent out to how many companies?
When can I buy a picoP SHOW?
sturocks Says:

March 1st, 2009 at 9:30 am |

With the long anticipated release of a picop stand alone OEM product(s) and the anxious wait for news on the embedded front, I would like Microvision to elaborate on the expansion of these platforms into other areas or applications with expanding revenue possiblities. What, where and when are the next realistic revenue producing directions for Microvision’s base technology. Are we closer to hearing about an OEM adoption of Microvision’s HUD offering? Are their new technology or next generation products under consideration that will be added to enhance a viable ongoing product pipline for the near future? I appreciate any “color” you can provide in these areas.

Thank you,
sturocks
kaniksu Says:

March 1st, 2009 at 11:29 am |

1.) Is there any delay in the commercial launch of SHOWwx in the 2nd quarter as previously stated? Has this time line slipped?

2.) Is another round of financing going to be required PRIOR to commercial sales of SHOWwx?
Ellis Says:

March 1st, 2009 at 5:52 pm |

Yes. If you could please address additional financing.

Does Microvision and Motorola have a second generation handset prototype or are the two of you still sporting around last years MWC Barcelona 08 proto?

Have you heard any rumors about National Semiconductor working on their own laser light engine? It has been stated that they are also waiting on green lasers from Corning and Osram

Microvision stated that they would be ready to announce a SHOWWX distribution method by CES 2009, either going it alone or through a partner. Still no word

Thank you
homeTon Says:

March 2nd, 2009 at 5:06 am |

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in the Q&A session and thanks to the Microvision team for the great work.

I am sure there will be much said about the stand alone and embedded products, so here a few questions about some of the other possible products:

Can you elaborate on the progress of the consumer eyewear product?

When will there be a public demonstration of the consumer eyewear and what will be the technology that it is based upon?

Will new lasers be needed in the eyewear?

Have any of the 5 OEMs that we have been working with on the stand alone and embedded products also been working on the consumer eyewear product?

Are there any OEMs that have shown any interest in the 3D projector technology and is there a product in development?

Is there a possibility of using more powerful lasers than the class II lasers to produce a brighter projector image?

Is there a 1080p projector or eyewear product in the works?
Eric Says:

March 2nd, 2009 at 8:55 am |

If an OEM agreement for the PicoP is not announced this qtr CC I would appreciate any color on when management believes they will find an OEM partner.
Anant Goel Says:

March 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am |

I don’t think you realize it, but Microvision is making history, as a public company, on more than two fronts in its effort to embrace the “Real Time Communications” with its customers and Investors.

First, it was the real time “Microvision Blog” launched in September of 2008. And now it is the invitation to post our questions before the quarterly earnings CC on March 5… in an effort to broaden the scope and depth of Q&A session. This post from Ms. Tiffany Bradford of Microvision IR department says it all…

“Hence the reason for today’s post–we want to hear from you. What questions do you have? What topics do you want to hear about? What messages need clarification? Please post them here or email me at IR@microvision.com and I’ll aggregate your responses with the goal of addressing topics that matter to you on the conference call.”
Congratulations for embracing the brave new world of “Real Time Investor & Customer Relations”.

Two years ago I came to Microvision message board at YAHOO looking for investor/user feedback to Microvision technology, products and services. What I noticed was a total lack of factual information and lots of BS posted by unscrupulous characters. Some of us took the risk and devoted our time to research, review, and write the facts about Microvision and articulated the investment opportunities offered by MVIS stock. It took lot of time and energy to do that. And lately it really got harder and harder to gather useful information, because Microvision was firing on many different fronts and that information would easily get mixed-up to make any sense.

Microvision has made lots of progress over the last two years. But Microvision is not fully appreciated, or recognized, by the investment community. May be that was because of the antiquated dark-age communications media that the management [of the past] chose to get the message out. However, that is changing and may be now the minority investors, for example, can realize the true value of their undervalued asset in MVIS stock. Microvision management took a giant step when they held the first web cast [investor conference call] over two years ago and recently started to open-up and communicate with the investors, employees, customers and vendors in real time. And we “hope” that is the beginning of openness and sharing of the truth with integrity and trust. Openness and sharing truth with integrity are important to investors, both large and small.

Hope is key word here. To hope is to wish for something with the expectation of the wish being fulfilled.

Hope can be passive in the sense of a wish, or active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea.

Consider a prisoner of war who never gives up hope for escape and, against the odds, plans and accomplishes this. By contrast, consider another prisoner who simply wishes or prays for freedom, or another who gives up all hope of freedom.

It’s my hope that Microvision continues with its plan, or idea, of actively communicating with its investors, customers, employees, partners and vendors in real time… in our Internet world wide web!!!

Anant Goel
George Says:

March 2nd, 2009 at 3:14 pm |

If we could wave a magic wond and suddenly, Corning and others had unlimited supplies of green lasers of the type needed for PicoP applications, would Microvision be ready for them? In other words, is PicoP technology currently and/or completely ready for embedded applications (aside from the green laser availability)? Is there more development work to be done? If more refinement is needed, what specifically is needed (power consumption issues etc.), what are the key development issues still pending (aside from the green lasers)? and what are the anticipated timelines for full implementation of an embedded PicoP — again assuming that green lasers are ready and waiting?

Thanks.
Dan L. Says:

March 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm |

This may sound like a stupid question, but with all the crazy nonsense happening with all the bashing that has been happening on the Yahoo Message Board for such a long time, does this sound like a possiblility of a hostile takeover. As I said, may sound stupid but I have to ask.
videoctr Says:

March 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 am |

Your PicoP product sparks the imagination. Do you have a path for inspired individuals to suggest an application idea in a formal way? For instance a technology transfer office to help evaluate novel uses for the PicoP?
kaniksu Says:

March 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm |

With the continued decline in Microvision’s stock price is Management concerned about delisting?
Anant Goel Says:

March 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm |

Just a few short questiions:

– What’s the probability of shipping a commercial Stand Alone PicoP projector to consumers [any configuration] by July 2009?
– With price of SA unit at $500.00 retail [sold directly or thru an OEM]… does Microvision make any Gross profit [retail price - cost of goods]?
– With cash burn rate running at $7 million/qtr… when is the next round of financing [to continue as a going concern] expected?
– Laser manufacturers [for PicoP Display Engine] have expressed pricing and thermal stability issues with Green Lasers… how does that affect the commercial introduction of SA unit by July 2009?
– What is your distribution channel selection for the SA PicoP projector… assuming Microvision were to bring the SA unit to market on its own?
– Is Microvision still on schedule for mid-2010 introduction of the embedded PicoP projector?

Any and all responses are most appreciated.

Anant Goel
Thomas Shugrue Says:

March 4th, 2009 at 9:05 am |

Does Delphi use Microvision’s technology in their HUD?
Do you have any dealings with them?
homeTon Says:

March 4th, 2009 at 12:46 pm |

Will a major OEM have a commercial product for sale in large numbers (100k – millions) for this Christmas season, using our pico engine? or will we have to wait until next year for volume production to begin?

Will Corning and/or Osram be in production with green lasers by this June or are they using a temporary fab facility until then? How many units per month will we be able to support?

Are red and blue lasers available in volume numbers?

thanks
Thomas Shugrue Says:

March 4th, 2009 at 10:09 pm |

Does Lexus use Microvision’s technology in their HUD?
Thank you in advance for your response!
M.A.N. Says:

March 5th, 2009 at 11:21 am |

Perahps the most important question of all for now: I have heard from Corning that they are ready to go with production of green lasers in quantity. They seem confident they can handle ANY order they get. In fact it sounded like they would be disapointed with an order for only tens of thousands. The “several week” period of final acceptance testing for OEMS seems just about up. If Corning is ready, and the interest is high as you have indicated many times, what is the hold-up? Is Microvision ready on ALL fronts with the supply chain? Is everybody now ready and waiting for an order from a large OEM? If so what do you suppose is holding back an OEM from committing? Are you confident in “lifetime” testing?
Microvision opens up earnings call via blog | IR Web Report Says:

March 5th, 2009 at 3:43 pm |

[...] called for investors to submit questions on the blog so that she could address them on the company’s upcoming earnings conference call. [...]
norbert Says:

March 6th, 2009 at 11:32 pm |

Brilliant CC yesterday – I haven’t laughed so much in years.
Len Says:

March 7th, 2009 at 8:47 am |

“Tiffany Bradford isn’t one to seek the limelight, but she deserves a lot of credit for taking the lead in the IR profession to use a blog to open up the lines of communication between management and retail investors.”

http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/ir_blog_makes_ir_history/

I don’t know what they pay you, but it is surely not enough! Thanks Tiffany for all of your efforts! As a long time investor it is real hard to see time lines slip year over year while we are completely in the dark. At this point in time I think all of the so called top secret stuff is doing much more harm than good. Hope you prevail with the people at the top for more transparency… At least you made major progress.
Thomas Shugrue Says:

March 7th, 2009 at 11:17 pm |

Tiffany,
Question: With the share prices at rock bottom like they are and with such amazing up side potential, why are we not seeing more “insider” purchases? I know it is after the CC but I would like answers to this and my other questions, not links to articles about what a great idea it was for you even to ask us,as INVESTORS, if we had any questions.Please respond to the questions that were not addressed during the CC. Thank you very much in advance!
Anant Goel Says:

March 9th, 2009 at 9:07 am |

Lately, after every CC there are more questions than answers and the investors are left wondering and speculating. When you add to this the lack of transparency, secrecy, and diplomacy in answering questions what you get is a witch’s brew that is sure to make your head spin.

Talking about spinning, there was plenty of that at the March 5th conference call. If you don’t believe me, just look at the stock price today to see how transparent it was to the investors … 80 cents and still in a downward spiral.

I’m sure there are plausible reasons for secrecy, diplomacy and spin mystery… but this “cloak and dagger” stuff is doing more harm than good.

We are grown adult investors [and always put our money where our mouth is] and surely can handle the truth about limited delivery of Green Lasers during the stated second half ’09 commercial ramp-up. In any high-tech based product introduction, un-expected delays do arise and issues are resolved in due course. What I fail to understand is the investor reasons for spinning that small fact into what comes across as such a devastatingly massive issue.

Anant Goel
Anant Goel Says:

March 10th, 2009 at 4:07 pm |

MVIS: Pricing Strategy for SHOWwx

If $499 was the price for the baseline model and functionality [in-line with what the competition would offer], then Microvision could [and should] charge $799 for the following differentiating features…

• Always-in-focus
• Short throw ratio [bigger picture from short distance]
• Stunningly colorful, bright, vivid and detailed images
• Higher image resolution (848×480) with HD pathway
• Unmatched small font readability
• Wider aspect ratio [wide screen experience]
• Fast refresh to prevent motion blur when watching sports or action videos and movies
• 3 year warranty service… why not with all that MEMS reliability and exceeding drop test performance
• Headboard clamp for in-bed watching videos and movies on the ceiling
• All cables and leather case included
• Trade-in offer [worth $200 in exchange value] for any future PicoP Projector

It doesn’t really cost anything extra but allows you to monetize the superior product functionality that Microvision offers. There is no reason to give it away for free. Since Microvision has more demand than they can supply [5:1 ratio], it only makes sense to monetize [profitably] whatever they are able to supply. It positions SHOWwx as the premium high quality PicoP Projector in the market. Interestingly it has the “tri-facta” impact:

• Brings superior product to the market sooner.
• Creates “premium high quality” image perception.
• Generates profitable revenues in spite of the limited Green Laser delivery.
• Prevents negative connotations associated with “out-of-stock” scenarios when there is more demand than supply.
• Immediately engages the first movers [also the center of future influence on others] into purchasing a premium high quality product.
• Keeps your potential customers engaged, interested and willing to wait for the superior product when more supply becomes available and the price has come down to with-in their price/value perception range.

This premium price strategy is what’s called “gorilla” marketing… where you choke the demand to bring-it-in-line with supply… all at the same time increasing your overall profitability… and keeping the competition at bay.

Apple uses this strategy all the time, why not Microvision?

Microvision can always drop the price, as the supply catches-up with demand. In the meantime this strategy allows Microvision to convert a bad situation into profitably good
strategy… like making lemonade from lemons.

Glotech
Dan L. Says:

March 10th, 2009 at 9:17 pm |

I think Microvision should hire Anant Goel to show Microvision how to market their product. Anant has some of the best ideas and forsight I have seen from any posters.
Anant, you are priceless. Thanks for your post and thoughts. Keep them coming.
Dan L.
Anant Goel Says:

March 17th, 2009 at 7:27 am |

MVIS: Future Funding Thru Rights Offering

Sooner or later, and surely before February 2010, Microvision will need additional funding to stay as a going concern.

One of the ways that is most equitable for the existing stakeholders is the “rights issue”.

Microvision should seriously consider making a rights issue, a popular way of raising money in Europe. Such an issue involves selling discounted shares to existing shareholders. Here’s the news from this morning, about such a rights issue being considered by ArcelorMittal, the worlds top steel maker…

“ LONDON (Dow Jones) — ArcelorMittal, the world’s top steelmaker, on Tuesday called a newspaper report that it was considering a 5 billion euro ($6.5 billion) share sale “without foundation and speculation” — while conceding that it may choose such an option in time.

ArcelorMittal (MT) was responding to an article in the Financial Times, which cited speculation that the Luxembourg-headquartered firm could make a rights issue, a popular way of raising money in Europe. Such an issue involves selling discounted shares to existing shareholders.

The FT report said it was rumored to have hired J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank to coordinate a rights issue enabling existing holders to buy one share for every two they own for 8 euros – which is 44% below Monday’s closing price.
ArcelorMittal called the report “not true.” But its statement didn’t rule out fund-raising activity either.”

Here’s the link to this news article…

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200903170854DOWJONESDJONLINE000305_FORTUNE5.htm

Anant Goel
Anant Goel Says:

March 20th, 2009 at 10:07 pm |

MVIS: Cut Cost and Generate Cash

Let’s take a walk down “Memory Lane” to see why it is so important to cut cost and generate cash for survival…

Back in the day the world was enthralled by a new gadget called a PDA that they used while browsing through a retail store where they could rent the hottest movies to watch at their leisure and the communications world was abuzz by a hot company founded by Robert Metcalfe─ father of the Ethernet. In Mach of 2000, Palm (PALM) was trading at $800 after being spun off from 3Com (COMS) which was changing hands at $55 a share and Blockbuster (BBI) reached a high of $27 by May of 2002. Now all are struggling with two in a life and death struggle to stay alive. All these companies are focused on key things companies need to survive in rough times, cutting costs and generating cash.

3Com (COMS) posted earnings of $0.13 beating the street by $0.03 on revenue of $325 million, which came in below consensus of $332 million. Management focused on cutting cost and improving cash flow from operations, which climbed to $100 million.

Palm (PALM) lost $0.86 a share the street was looking for a loss but of only $0.59 as revenue plunged 71% to $90.6 million.

Blockbuster (BBI) earned $0.40 blowing away the consensus of $0.25. Revenue was off 12% year over year to $1.38 billion a number well below the $1.52 billion expected. According to management the company is looking to cut costs by $200 million.

Anant Goel
Whitfill Says:

August 23rd, 2009 at 5:08 pm |

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Microvision’s Q4/FY 2008 Conference Call Scheduled

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