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Sign the order, please! Obducat's curious explanation of its convertibles subscription extension |
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Apr 10, 2008 at 02:31 PM |
A microelectronics equipment company tooting its own horn about scoring recent orders is one thing, but to hear public talk about a deal not even signed is rare, yet that is precisely what Obducat did earlier today.
The Swedish purveyor of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) tools says it is in "the final stages of negotiations" with an unnamed hard-disk drive customer for one of the supplier's high-volume manufacturing systems. The announcement went on to say that the order agreement will be signed "Friday, April 18, at the very latest."
Isn't announcing an as-yet-unclosed order, no matter how rock solid the customer commitment seems to be, similar to "betting on the come" at the craps table? But then, it's not like the imprint lithography game is a risky business or anything. Yeah, right, tell that to Obducat, Molecular Imprints, EVGroup, and the other NIL players struggling mightily against the optical litho oligopoly! Roll those dice, Henri Bergstrand and Patrik Lundstrom!
I cannot remember ever seeing language like this, with a cutoff date and all, in an press release from a company like Obducat, but it turns out the Swedes may have good reason for this unusual move: The firm's board wants to extend "a subscription period for the current issue of convertibles."
No, not tricked-out Volvo or Saab ragtops, but the shareholder-related kind of convertibles. The company's board thinks that by pushing the period out to April 22 from the current April 11 deadline, subscribers will be able to factor in the pre-order information in their decision-making. If this results in more krone coming into the coffers, the company will ultimately benefit from potentially increased capitalization and strengthened financials, allowing it to expand operations, especially its manufacturing capabilities.
What gives today's announcement even more chewiness is that it comes when the company has been on a deal-closing roll of late, with two other pieces of news about selling tools issued over the past week. Obducat has sold an Eitre 6 R&D NIL tool for hard-disk patterned media apps to the Singaporean Data Storage Institute, the first of what is expected to be several Sindre NIL systems to an LED component manufacturer in Japan, and a development system to a Japanese display manufacturer. The latter two deals also show the first fruits of Obducat's partnership with Canon Marketing in Japan.
When the order to be signed soon is factored in--which is even more significant because it will be for a volume HDD manufacturing platform (a sector that Obducat has been working hard to crack)--it bodes well for the company's prospects as well as the commercial evolution and industrial market penetration of NIL in general.
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Comment by GUEST on 2008-04-16 14:16:36
Tom,
The order seems was signed today: http://www.obducat.com/Default.aspx?ID=127&M=News&PID=155&NewsID=328
Thanks for your blog! | Comment by GUEST on 2008-04-17 11:05:34
4/16/2008 Obducat signs agreement concerning HDD mass production worth 66 MSEK
OBDUCAT, the leading supplier of lithography solutions based on NanoImprint Lithography and Electron Beam Lithography is pleased to announce that an agreement has been signed with one of the leading global HD media manufacturer concerning SINDRE HDD (Hard Disk Drive) mass production system.
http://www.obducat.com/Default.aspx?ID=127&M=News&PID=155&NewsID=328 |
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