POET TECHNOLOGIES SPECIAL STRATEGIC COMMITTEE ANNOUNCES KEY UPDATES
Poet Technologies Inc. has provided an update regarding its near-term strategic plan and technical milestones.
The company remains on track to deliver to industry, and specifically to its development partners, by mid-2014, a fully integrated monolithic optoelectronic semiconductor chip based on the company's Poet platform. This leap-forward solution will be capable of providing significant energy savings and increased performance over current silicon technology.
Poet development alliance
To date, Poet has met with several large-scale technology firms which have expressed interest in jointly adapting Poet to commercial-scale implementation. Some of these potential alliance partners have already provided input into Poet's alignment of resources, notably with respect to the company's technical road map. Some specific instances include the moving forward of milestone six in Poet's corporate presentation, achieved in the second quarter 2013; and the current 100 nm initiative, which is proceeding as planned. Incubating such relationships is a task of the special strategic committee, as a key aspect of finalizing licensing relationships toward a powered by Poet device ecosystem.
Shareholder rights plan
As previously announced on Aug. 16, the board of directors has adopted a shareholder rights plan designed to encourage the fair and equal treatment of shareholders in connection with any takeover bid for the outstanding securities of the company. The rights plan provides the board of directors with additional time to assess the advantages and disadvantages to any particular offer and to seek out alternative proposals in the best interests of all shareholders. The rights plan is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and the shareholders. The company is required to seek shareholder approval to reapprove the rights plan every three years. The company has not adopted the rights plan in response to any specific proposal to acquire control of its outstanding shares. The rights plan is similar to plans adopted by other Canadian companies and ratified by their shareholders. It is not the intention of the rights plan to entrench management or prevent a change of control of the company to the detriment of shareholders. The rights plan does not apply to takeover bids that meet certain requirements including that the bid be made by way of a takeover bid circular and be left open for at least 60 days so as to ensure that shareholders have an adequate opportunity to assess the merits of the bid.
A copy of the rights plan will be made available for viewing in due course on SEDAR, and can also be obtained from the company.
Milestone five -- switching laser demonstration at Poet's R&D labs
This milestone is near completion; it demonstrates a fast-signal controllable laser for standard optical fibre telecommunications applications. While the integrated Poet switchable laser transmitter is a key differentiator to silicon technology, it is considered to demand less priority on resources, because of its low-risk for achievability, over milestones in Poet's technical road map which have been deemed more important to its potential partners.
Milestone seven
Optical thyristor-based infrared detector array fabrication and validation
This milestone is currently proceeding with no technical issues, according to Poet's third party fab partner. While the Poet team is in continuous communication with the fab, a publicly available update may fall well into fourth-quarter reporting, as control of this fabrication and validation process remains with Poet's partner.
It should be noted that the technical road map in the company presentation provides best approximations based on current progress at Poet's R&D labs and partner fabs; timing differences will arise and have arisen not only due to technical resource needs but also due to input from potential PDA partners. It has become impractical to document the numerous changes to Poet's road map due to these interactions, but the company has elected to keep the current presentation as indicative, rather than provide no information. Despite balancing all these demands, the company expects to complete and present its monolithic solution on time.
Peter Copetti, executive director and chairman of the SSC, commented: "On behalf of management and Poet's board of directors, we would like to thank investors for participating in this crucial juncture of Poet Technologies' evolution as a fabless designer of next-generation semiconductor technology. As such, the SSC has made strategic motions to protect shareholder's rights and our core IP portfolio, while moving the company's monetization agenda forward."
Mr. Copetti continued: "This is the critical period approaching the last phases of development, towards the introduction to the semiconductor industry of a revolutionary, and validated, process to produce integrated monolithic optoelectronic chips. The company continues to target a liquidity event for investors, which has remained a primary objective throughout our discussions. We are excited to see that the work of Geoff Taylor's team is finally bearing fruit -- securing Poet Technologies as a leader in its space as the semiconductor industry works towards extending Moore's Law into the next millennium."
