Hop-On Inc (OTMKTS:HPNN) Hangs Onto the Double Zero Levels
On February 20, Hop-On Inc (OTMKTS:HPNN) managed to shift nearly $5 million worth of shares. The price jumped from $0.0003 per share, skyrocketed to a 52-week high of $0.0028 and eventually settled at $0.0015. The reason for the impressive run can be found in a press release that hit the wire about an hour and a half after the opening bell. According to it, HPNN have signed a patent agreement with none other than Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Apparently, the mere mention of Microsoft was enough to push the price out of triple zero land and with the help of a few more press releases, HPNN is so far managing to avoid a more serious drop. Six days after the announcement of the patent agreement, they said that they are jumping on the marijuana bandwagon that has set the OTC Markets on fire recently. On March 11 they announced the retirement of $1 million worth of debt with the issuance of preferred shares and yesterday, they said that they have signed a letter of intent with a Chinese Manufacturer that will, apparently, bring as much as $100 million in revenues.
The latest PR appeared in the afternoon and although HPNN managed to log around $680 thousand in dollar volume and 10% in price gains, some more buying pressure during today’s trading won’t be that surprising. But what about the longer run? Will HPNN finally manage to show some sustained growth?
The PR’s certainly sound exciting, but then again, there has never really been a shortage of enthusiasm around Hop-On. According to the latest financial report, they’re “well-known for the invention of the disposable cell phone“. HPNN also seem to be proud about coming up with an “interactive gaming technology that is based on a proprietary software solution“. So why, you may be wondering, did the ticker spent most of last year deep in the triple zero levels?
Part of this could be explained with the fact that at one point, HPNN simply decided that publishing their financial statements isn’t really necessary. They have been using the alternative reporting standard since the very beginning, but they filed absolutely no documents between April 2012 and December 2013. Still, at the beginning of 2014, they published the annual statements for 2012 and 2013 which means that they’re now current with their reporting obligations.
What’s more, the reports themselves contain some rather bold claims. At one point, HPNN say that “the license rights to essential patents (…) give Hop-On a stronger position to manufacture, market and distribute than the likes of Samsung and Apple“.
We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether their arguments are valid or not, but we should probably note that Apple and Samsung use real buildings as the location of their corporate headquarters rather than a P.O. Box. The big boys also have quite a bit more cash in the bank and much more solid figures in the revenues sections of their balance sheets. Keeping that in mind might not be a bad call.
Another thing you should probably consider is the company’s past. More specifically, the company CEO’s past. The person currently at the helm is called Peter Michaels and he was quite excited when he was launching HPNN‘s first disposable phone. Some articles (such as this one), however, suggest that his devices were nothing more than restyled Nokia handsets. A year later, he was arrested for allegedly defrauding investors by making some false representations around the company’s internet casinos.
Will these things affect HPNN‘s future performance? Only time will tell, but we reckon that proceeding with caution might not be a bad call, despite the optimism coming from the latest press releases.
