
VOYT Voyant International Shareholder Meeting Highlights And Our Thoughts
June 4, 2008 Domain Hotel Sunnyvale CA
Speaker Dana Waldman CEO
V's strategy is to see multi-billion dollar opportunities for emerging technologies that others may miss.
3 multi-billion opportunities identified with solutions.
--File Transfer Protocol FTP 30 year-old file transfer standard that was
never designed with today’s Internet pipe and file sizes in mind --solution RocketStream..proprietary Internet protocol
--millions of seats desiring internet access on airplanes solution Aviation
Broadband
--upcoming spectrum (700 MHz and TV White Space) solution Software Defined
Radio, White Space Radio
The $300M Patent Portfolio
Our Patent portfolio-- the U.S. Govt, Lockheed Martin, top VCs spent $300M developing a portfolio of patents for emerging technologies. V acquired this intellectual property for pennies on the dollar.
V also acquired proprietary Internet Protocol intellectual property with the RocketStream
acquisition. Voyant mgmt/engineers have since added add to their IP (ABS, WSR and RS).
---they have only tapped a fraction of the portfolio so far.
Mark Laisure brought Dana Waldman, Lockheed Martin's brain child and Centerpoint's CEO and serial entrepreneur on board to build a dreamteam of top visionaries/engineers that can identify and build applications out of this intellectual property and new innovations.
A unique public entity.
Voyant is a publicly traded holding company that is part investor, part incubator, and part operator.
Voyant is comprised of experienced Silicon Valley exec’s and some of the smartest government and commercial engineers. They are the inheritors of $300m intellectual property portfolio which is at their disposal.
Voyant's expertise lies in identifying an upcoming problem/opportunity that they can see a solution for. They bring to the table their know how, this intellectual property portfolio and a wealth of technology and media contacts.
The company is in process of having a qualified 3rd party (ie auditor) to value the portfolio for strategic purposes.
Next Generation Internet Dream Team additions last year.
Dr. Herschel Stiles ---Deputy for Technology and Systems at Space
Systems/Loral, was responsible for technology and implementation for high-speed modem
products, optical sub-carrier multiplexing products, DWDM and switching/grooming products.
Dr. Steffen Koehler --"Dr Optics"---introduced the first generation of DWDM and 10 Gb/s transport equipment to Pacific Bell/SBC Communications --Director of Product Management at Ciena – successful exit strategist for a series of optics startups Ed Gerhardt----the lead technologist on the development of the first VSAT,PTM, Spread Spectrum, and broadband millimeter-wave point-to-point radios...founded successful wireless startups that were acquired by Scientific Atlanta, Comsat, and PCOM
William Chen---Sales channel guru who was responsible for expanding business and driving major design wins for Alcatel Optronics in the U.S. and Asia Pacific regions.
Established a network of approximately 100 value-added resellers (VARs) and
distributors for Authenex, leading to 18x increase in worldwide revenues over 4 years.
In keeping with their "holding company" model, they have already added 2 entities,
Voyant Aviation Broadband and Voyant Wireless.
What's in the $300m Patent Portfolio
Physical-Layer Technology
-wireless radio frequency transmission
-advanced optical transmission techniques
-custom chip design
-power and bandwidth efficient modems
Network System Design
-mobile routing internet protocol software
-advanced antenna technology
-aviation broadband system design
Internet Protocol Software
-data transfer acceleration protocols
-file transfer management software
they haven't even started exploiting the optics technologies yet...Dana's forte.."just wait till we delve into that part"
New Divisions
Voyant Aviation Broadband
-state of the art radio technology
-10xs the capacity at same or lower cost than competitors
-10-50x more bandwidth
-5-100x lower cost per bit
-competitor can't simultaneously scale and offer competitive price point
-2000 planes in air at any one time in US or Europe..leading player can't accommodate
even a fraction of these planes
-running demonstrations at Harris labs
-relationships with Tier 1 communications and aviation industry players
-3 ways to generate revenues (1. equipment sales,2. Internet traffic (like an ISP), 3.selling content)
-traction in Europe expected 1st, Asia Pacific, U.S.
- partnership with Harris brings serious corporate muscle to the table!
-Branding and business development campaign going on now
White Space Radio (WSR)
What is White Space and what is Voyant's role in it?
FCC initiative opens a new class of wireless services
--V mgmt team, seasoned spectrum engineers have been watching this market's
development for a long time
-"expect to become a huge market"
V's White Space Radio (WSR) fits well with Open Access Strategies from companies like Google, Dell, HP, Microsoft and Motorola.
-design is flexible and reconfigurable
-already received their first contract..customer funds development of a non-exclusive product that Voyant can also use for other applications, other customers...this contract is a huge event for the company and shareholders.
---To comply with FCC’s “Open Access” rules, WSR’s must not interfere with other devices already using a specific frequency.
That’s great, because Voyant's secret sauce is their ability to "get out of the way" of another user, and continuously find an used frequency and send data at rapid speeds using proprietary technology.
RocketStream
--makes IP data transfers almost independent of geography:reduce the digital world to the size of a pinhead!
--the RS "engine" leverages other 3rd party applications
--goal of company has always been to embed RS which speeds up data transfer
in popular 3rd party software
--countries and enterprises with big pipes are seeing this problem now..timing
is perfect for RS adoption
--Korea , China and Japan ideal markets with scaling telecomm infrastructure
--tons of market verticals:entertainment, medical imaging, legal, graphics, oil& gas, etc.
--working on more "anchor partners"
--company has shifted energies and focus toward Biz Dev embedded opportunities
--"the implications for RS ultimate addressable market are enormous"..Dana Waldman
(our take) RocketStream is a perfect example of the Voyant mgmt identifying a problem= opportunity (20-year old Internet protocol FTP, TCP/IP) were not designed to scale and therefore can not handle the upcoming Internet data deluge.
In this case, they acquired RocketStream to penetrate a multi-billion dollar opportunity.
Voyant has already proven they can identify and provide products/solutions
for other emerging multi-billion dollar markets utilizing their $300m IP
portfolio (ABS, WSR) or by acquiring intellectual property (RocketStream).
...As early as 2006, the team had the vision to see that file transfer protocol
(FTP) is an internet protocol that was never designed to scale and that
enterprises would soon have problems moving content over the Net. Acquiring
RocketStream gives them IP (RS's proprietary Internet protocol) that applies
not just to file transfer, but to ALL Internet data movement (streaming, Web 2.0 apps, cloud computing…).
Proginet embedded deal
RocketStream Moves Big Files
--tens of thousands of servers running Proginet can now use RS acceleration engine to move big files for Fortune 500 cos
--RS will be utilized in Proginet's upcoming huge e-commerce initiative
Our take on the Proginet deal
-- this is just the first of many embedded deals
-- this deal is further proof that Voyant delivers on its promises in a methodical, structured way. They said they would go after embedding of RS, and here’s proof that they’ve done it.
-- got the customer to pay for development – kind of like WSR – shrewd move!
-- this deal should bring some nice recurring top-line revenue to RS
-- watch for more embedded deals in vertical markets
Bullets
Dana Waldman was involved with Qualcomm and saw how their CDMA (modulation)
became the standard for cellphones. He sees same oppty for Voyant in WSR
market
Competitors for White Space?
"haven't seen any yet, but likely will come from big guys like Ericsson, Motorola".
Making sense/cents of White Space--"Frequency-Agile Software Defined Radio"
(a modem that is able to sense occupied frequencies and change to unused
frequencies continuously)
Our interpretation of Voyant's potential in white space
White Hot Opportunity For Voyant
Imagine a mobile device (laptop, mobile phone, automobile etc) as a car trying to merge on a major freeway (lots of devices operating on lots of different frequencies). The car has to have the ability to sense existing traffic on the freeway (other devices on that same frequency), get out of the way and find an opening to merge on the ramp (unused frequency) and do this continuously
while moving.
This engineering feat sounds a lot like what Voyant’s management has excelled at in the business world: be nimble, find your opportunity, and strike at the right time.
Not only does Voyant have plenty of experience with spectrum sensing, but
they have RocketStream to transfer any type of content on any device at
accelerated speeds.
Voyant's management has years of experience with this technology.
Last year some of V mgmt converted loans to the company and their salaries
into stock. Management's interest's are aligned with shareholders.