A testimony of my position and a few things to rec
Post# of 11802
Been invested here for 8 years. Quite a few shares (7 figures)!and a rather large investment (6 figures). Initial investment made as have family members with diabetes, and son has a few friends with childhood diabetes. Before investing few phone calls with company about strategic direction and opportunity. Key takeaways I got, portfolio will serve 75% of addressable market, compete against Big 4 with individual strips, favorable cash flow in 2017, adequate financial backing from European interest and big opportunity with patent litigation. Hearing this i jumped in and endeavored to call the company at least twice per year.
So fast forwarding, began to lose patience in 2018 centered on sales, dilution and failed additional financing. Manufacturing footprint changes from PA to Korea and then China. Production ramps that never seemed to be needed. Further products like GenSure and Gen Choice were touted for distribution but never found a sales channel. PRs about offers, partners, etc. that never materialized. Finally, J&J litigation loss in the Nevada and DC courts. All along remained patient but skepticism rose. For me kicker was losing in DC, no follow up PR discussing loss and regarding strategy, Gen Choice hung up in FDA way past what we were told, KB plowing 600k in company and perfect partner still not settled or even discussed. Where is the 100M contract with lump sum? Get it? Career in business and my disappointment regarding my investment choice was more than frustrating. Went from trust to great mistrust. Compounded by some MB poster who many trust that kept throwing nuggets of information that also never seemed to come to fruition.
The only thing that i can honestly hang my hat is that the portfolio was moving forward but if you can’t translate it to sales or monetize with a buyout, merger or partnership agreement, who cares?
I was more than prepared to take my lumps and move on. So I put over 600 k shares up for sale 2 months ago at approx .025 but no bites. I then resigned that it was zero-sum, which i was always banking on. I need approx 12c min to break even on my xM shares. No idea if it could be achieved but if Plat Eq or DECN was getting desperate felt a deal would be reached to make me whole. All this, and still not trusting in the company to deliver.
So, sadly the CV-19 becomes a pandemic. No vaccine, no effective treatment and no efficient way to test. Low and behold, DECN seems to have the technology to test. And to test cheaply, quickly and home based. First, thought reading the initial PR, here we go again. Get me even (share price is important for an investor) and IM gone. Volume goes up exponentially and takes share price up with it. I think should I sell and move on or ride out the risk-reward? I’ve had a few winners and many losers over the years. Rode some up and back down again.
Then it hit me. Call me foolish but a couple of things stand out. One a potential winning diabetic strip portfolio (without any funding to make it happen), fantastic publicity that may cause some HF or Plat Eq to move things along to Finance the portfolio, the distinct possibility that maybe DECN does have the technology to adapt to virus testing (and wouldn’t that be great for the company and humankind), the potential for government funding, Scott Gottlieb as a potential influencer to the Trump
administration (Gottlieb is gold - IMO another take names and kickass type guy) who was advancing VLN and opioid legislation along with streamlining and technologically advancing the FDA clinical trial processes. All that moving forward quickly until he must have pissed off the wrong special interest group that got to Trump (i believe Big Tobacco) AND the last and maybe most important. Remember when KB lopped off a lot of small volume shareholders? Essentially clean up the admin books shorten up the shareholder base, and deal with just a few malcontents. So I asked myself, KB not getting younger, wants a legacy, clearly wants to look out for his employees - WHY would he ever want to bring on a larger shareholder base that could potentially, if DECN is not successful, make his life and that of his employees, miserable on many fronts? Answer, i don’t believe he would. Who would want to go thru this all over again but this time with x times the number of pushed off # of shareholders?
So, IMO, DECN has this. It’s now their mission to no kidding, take a product from design to market in a few short months. If successful what a triumph for the company and humankind and what a financially rewarding endeavor to advance the core competency diabetic portfolio and what a legacy for KB. If not, well...
Good luck DECN. These are scary times, times most never thought we would experience, we need the best and brightest engaged on all levels. Many counting DECN in that group.