007 Stock Chat Sink their Teeth into PositiveID Corporation (OTC:PSID) Again
Creating hype through paid promotions is not a new idea and a lot of companies have been targeted by pumpers for quite a while now. The end result is usually nothing to brag about and a lot of people use the fuss to make some healthy profits. When the promotions follow one after the other, however, things really start to look dubious. This is case with PositiveID Corporation (OTC:PSID).
PSID is a company with a rather interesting history. Up until 2010 they were known as VeriChip Corporation. The company made some headlines when they devised the first, FDA-approved human-implantable Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) microchip. Their fame was so big, that the word Verichip entered the dictionary. There was, however, an outburst of concerns (some of them quite fair) about the possible consequences of such technology like privacy violation, health issues etc. The criticism was so intense, that they stopped production, changed the name as well as some officers, and started advertising themselves as PositiveID.
Most companies would be proud of having been involved with technology that has made its way into our everyday language, but PSID aren’t. Why? Probably they simply don’t have enough arguments to defend their microchip. In any case, this was the past, so let’s see how they’re getting on now.
PSID claim that they are developing a range of new devices – everything from gizmos that will help you with managing diabetes, to what they call, labs-in-boxes which, according to PSID, should be able to sniff out biological threats on airplanes. Judging by the Revenues section in their financial reports, they are not yet ready to start selling any of the devices. It seems, however, that airplane-building giant Boeing are interested in their bacteria-sniffing airborne contraptions. According to a press-release, PSID and Boeing signed a contract according to which, Boeing will be producing the magical box of tricks, while PSID is supposed to receive a total of $2.5 million in licensing fees.
The thing is, we have yet to see the rest of the contract, and we would have been very happy to know if it will bring PSID any additional royalties in the long run. When the news appeared, they said that they are going to publish the whole agreement on their website, but now, a month later, it’s still not there. We don’t even know when (if) the manufacturing process will start, although we doubt that it will be soon, having in mind that Boeing are quite busy fixing their 787 mess.
PSID should be in a hurry, though, since financially, they are in quite a sorry state. You can see for yourselves what we mean:
- cash: $186
- total current assets: $294
- total current liabilities: $4,850
- accumulated deficit since inception: approx $108 million (!!!)
Although they are waiting for the much needed money, PSID have not stopped celebrating their prestigious engagement with Boeing. The company CEO, for example, received nearly 30 million shares for free because of the great performance during 2012. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if having $186 in the bank is great performance, but one thing is for sure: issuing new stock didn’t make shareholders happy.
If the outcome of today’s pump is the same as the previous ones (and it probably will) they won’t be too keen either. The promoter certainly doesn’t inspire any confidence. We have covered quite a lot of 007 Stock Chat pumps in the past and one of them is IMING CORP (PINK:IMNG). It’s pretty clear how badly they crashed after the promotion back in December.
