Gary Leeds UK Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Due to bad management looks they lost about $9m from the price when they floated. Think they would be having some blood in board room by now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Probably not. The ipo made this a cash rich company to go develop and do its thing. $3 of the share price or 25% is the cash on the balance sheet.Anyone counting paper chickens probably should not be in a boardroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qVAMPIREp Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 The article is correct. Lots of B.S. Speculation of guys holding Phantom Options, etc. All of that is posted in the financials that Seeking Alpha reviewed. Bottom line is this: They jumped the Shark Tank people! Rule of investing #1: Never hold a stock the management isn't holding. If it's great they should be BUYING!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 The article is correct. Lots of B.S. Speculation of guys holding Phantom Options, etc. All of that is posted in the financials that Seeking Alpha reviewed. Bottom line is this: They jumped the Shark Tank people! Rule of investing #1: Never hold a stock the management isn't holding. If it's great they should be BUYING!!!Did you see my post 50 above. Most board members have many millions of dollars invested in the company. Just two have no current shareholding but may or may not have options. I'll read the accounts tomorrow to figure that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c4user3622 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Unless there is a major change in direction or unless they get bought out, us endusers are toast. Either doesn't look possible for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anzir Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 I'd hope not. It looks like Control4 is investing in itself fairly well with the new hardware they are just releasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qVAMPIREp Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 I'd hope not. It looks like Control4 is investing in itself fairly well with the new hardware they are just releasing.Read the article Anzir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Leeds UK Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Dealers should be putting pressure on C4 to open up or they will end up with a smaller market share. Not long ago Nest bought Revol and that's a company that understands HA Bet that board room as some get up and go, unlike the dinosaur C4 have. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-24/google-s-nest-unit-buys-home-automation-startup-revol YouTube video was made before Nest Bought them and now Nest are re-vamping the product. If I was a C4 shareholder I would be praying for Apple/Sony to buy the company. Sleep walking into a niche market - Did love my Blackberry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Why is CTRL strategy and execution any different to Crestron or Savant? Are all 3 sleepwalking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitaltrader Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 I guess the big question we all should ask, would you recommend C4 to a friend? If not, why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 I guess the big question we all should ask, would you recommend C4 to a friend? If not, why?Yes. And it was friends systems that sold it to me.That along with the ease of remote locating hardware. In Manhattan where floorspace is $1600+ a square floor that tv stand takes up $12400+ of floor space! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin L Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Lol. You guys just need to get rid of your control4 gear and get something else. There is so much bitching and doomsday type posts it's becoming sad. Crestron and savant are not going anywhere.. Neither is Control4. They have some really cool things in the works. It's not diy and they will sell plenty of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Lol. You guys just need to get rid of your control4 gear and get something else. There is so much bitching and doomsday type posts it's becoming sad.Crestron and savant are not going anywhere.. Neither is Control4. They have some really cool things in the works. It's not diy and they will sell plenty of them.Couldn't agree more. No one is forcing C4 upon you. If you already have the gear, rip it out, sell it off and go to another product/platform. If you do not own it, you have nothing to worry about. Like most platforms or products at various price points (luxury products vs lower priced products, apple v android, etc) some platforms/price points work for some and not others. I frequent a few forums on various topics (BBQ, watches, electronics), and this one by far is the most negative. It would be like Vegans trashing the BBQ forum or those who buy $20 watches knocking those who spend $20,000 (or vice versa). The forums are aimed at a particular audience, and those who are interested and enjoy the topic participate and others do not - they have their own forums to express their interests. I really wonder why some people take their time to be so negative about something they dislike. Spend your time on AVS, Cocoontech and others where you can share ideas, new products, etc. Why even take the time to come here and read up on C4? Lastly, if I want stock and financial advise, I'll go ask a professional I trust and read and cross check data on various platforms; I would not be skimming the posts on a tech thread to make an informed decision on a companies financials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdepaola Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Kevin, for some of these guys it's not about their equipment its about their investment. If you bought at $20 your not very happy right now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterwilson Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Lol. You guys just need to get rid of your control4 gear and get something else. There is so much bitching and doomsday type posts it's becoming sad.Crestron and savant are not going anywhere.. Neither is Control4. They have some really cool things in the works. It's not diy and they will sell plenty of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 The article is correct. Lots of B.S. Speculation of guys holding Phantom Options, etc. All of that is posted in the financials that Seeking Alpha reviewed. Bottom line is this: They jumped the Shark Tank people! Rule of investing #1: Never hold a stock the management isn't holding. If it's great they should be BUYING!!!Phantom options my a$$Per the 10Q page 13. At Sept 30, 2014, there was $16.1 million of total of unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested stock option awards that will be recognized over a weighted average period of 3.0 years. So the BOD has plenty on the table and an increase in the share price will correlate to an increase in that $16m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin L Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Kevin, for some of these guys it's not about their equipment its about their investment. If you bought at $20 your not very happy right now Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkWelcome to the stock market Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin L Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 And? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Managing Competition.The market for home automation is fragmented, highly competitive and continually evolving. A number of large technology companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung offer device control capabilities among some of their own products, applications and services and could be engaged in ongoing development efforts to address the broader home automation market. For example, during 2014, Google acquired Nest Labs, Inc. which manufactures thermostats and smoke detectors; Nest Labs, Inc. acquired Dropcam, a home-monitoring camera company; Apple introduced HomeKit, a new framework for communicating with and controlling connected devices in a user’s home; and Samsung acquired home automation startup SmartThings. Our ability to gain significant market share in the home automation market and interoperate with the new technologies developed by other large technology companies over the next several years will be key factors in our ability to continue to grow our business and meet or exceed our future expectations. Appliances SoldDuring the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, we sold 20,230 and 53,970 controllers, respectively, compared to 16,154 and 49,120 controllers sold in the same periods in 2013. Controller sales grew 25% during the three months ended September 30, 2014 compared to 2013. This compares to our overall growth in revenue of 16% during the same period. The higher growth rate in controller sales during the three months ended September 30, 2014 is due primarily to sales promotions on our HC-250 and HC-800 controllers during the month of September. Year to date controller sales are up only 10% as a result of a reduction in the total number of controllers sold during the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013. CashflowAs of September 30, 2014, we had $89.4 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and net marketable securities, an increase of $4.9 million from December 31, 2013. Legal ProceedingsFrom time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business. We are not presently a party to any legal proceedings, other than specifically identified below, that, if determined adversely to us, we believe would individually or in the aggregate have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. Currently, a range of loss associated with any individual material legal proceeding cannot be reasonably estimated. On April 23, 2014, Olivistar, LLC (“Olivistar”), a limited liability company organized under the laws of Texas, filed a Complaint against us in the Eastern District of Texas alleging that the our light switches and MyHome App infringe two United States patents that Olivistar owns by assignment. On July 15, 2014, we filed an Answer to Olivistar’s Complaint, and on August 8, 2014, the parties entered into a settlement agreement, which resulted in Olivistar dismissing its Complaint with prejudice. On August 12, 2014 and September 16, 2014, respectively, we received letters from Nokia Corporation alleging that we manufacture or supply products that practice IEEE 802.11 Standards related to wireless technology, and that Nokia is the owner of a portfolio of patents essential to that standard. We are conducting an investigation of the claims made by Nokia regarding its patent portfolio. Nokia has not initiated litigation against us, but we believe that Nokia may do so. We intend to defend ourselves vigorously with respect to this and any other claims or litigation. Risks Related to Our Business and IndustryThe markets in which we participate are highly competitive and many companies, including large technology companies, broadband andsecurity service providers and other managed service providers, are actively targeting the home automation market. Our failure to differentiate ourselves and compete successfully with these companies would make it difficult for us to add and retain consumers, and would reduce or impede the growth of our business. The market for automation and control solutions for the connected home is increasingly competitive and global. Many large technology companies have expanded into the connected home market by developing their own solutions, or by acquiring other companies with home automation solution offerings. For example, in 2013, Microsoft Corporation acquired id8 Group R2 Studios Inc., a home entertainment technology company; in 2014, Google acquired Nest Labs, a manufacturer of thermostats and smoke detectors; Nest Labs acquired Dropcam, a home-monitoring camera company;Apple introduced HomeKit, a new framework for communicating with and controlling connected devices in a user’s home; and Samsung acquired home automation startup, SmartThings. These large technology companies already have broad consumer awareness and sell a variety of devices for the home, and consumers may choose their offerings instead of ours, even if we offer superior products and services. Similarly, many managed service providers, such as cable TV, telephone and security companies, are offering servicesthat provide device control and automation capability within the home for an additional monthly service fee. For example, Comcast’s Xfinity service now offers residential security, energy and automation services. These managed service providers have the advantage of leveraging their existing consumer base, network of installation and support technicians and name recognition to gain traction in the home automation market. In addition, consumers may prefer the monthly service fee with little to no upfront cost offered by some of these managed service providers over a larger upfront cost with little to no monthly service fees. We expect competition from these large technology companies and managed service providers to increase in the future. This increased competition could result in pricing pressure, reduced sales, lower margins or the failure of our solutions to achieve or maintain broad market acceptance. To remain competitive and to maintain our position as a leading provider of automation and control solutions for the connected home, we will need to invest continuously in product development, marketing, dealer and distributor service and support, and product delivery infrastructure. We may not have sufficient resources to continue to make the investments in all of the areas needed to maintain our competitive position. In addition, most of our competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger consumer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than us, which may provide them with an advantage in developing, marketing or servicing new solutions. Increased competition could reduce our market share, revenue and operating margins, increase our operating costs, harm our competitive position or otherwise harm our business and results of operations. Consumers may choose to adopt point products that provide control of discrete home functionality rather than adopting our unified home automation solution. If we are unable to increase market awareness of the benefits of our unified solution, our revenue may not continue to grow, or it may decline.Many vendors have emerged, and may continue to emerge, to provide point products with advanced functionality for use in the home, such as a thermostat that can be controlled by an application on a smartphone. We expect more and more consumer electronic and consumer appliance products to be network-aware and connected—each very likely to have its own smart device (phone or tablet) application. Consumers may be attracted to the relatively low costs of these point products and the ability to expand their home control solution over time with minimal upfront costs, despite some of the disadvantages of this approach. While we have built our solution to be flexible and support third-party point products, these products may reduce the revenue we receive for each installation. It is therefore important that we have technical expertise and provide attractive top quality products in many areas, such as lighting and video, and establish broad market awareness of these solutions. If a significant number of consumers in our target market choose to adopt point products rather than our unified automation solution, then ourbusiness, financial condition and results of operations will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve sustained growth or our business may decline. Many of the competitors in our market, including providers of luxury integrated installations with long operating histories, established markets, broad user bases and proven consumer acceptance, may be successful in expanding into the mainstream home automation market, which may harm our growth and future prospects.Many companies with which we directly compete have been operating in this industry for many years and, as a result, have established significant name recognition in the home automation industry. For example, Crestron, a provider of luxury integrated installations, has been in business for over 40 years and has become an established presence in the home automation industry. Another provider of luxury integrated installations is Savant Systems, which provides home automation based on the Apple iOS operating platform. To the extent these providers are able to develop more affordable products that compete more directly with our solution, our growth may be constrained and our business could suffer. In addition, given the strong growth potential of the market, we expect there to be many new entrants in the future. Since we rely on third-party dealers and distributors to sell and install our solutions, we do not have a direct sales pipeline, which makes it difficult for us to accurately forecast future sales and correctly predict manufacturing requirements.We depend on our dealer and distributor network to sell and install our solution. As a result, we do not develop or control our sales pipeline, making it difficult for us to accurately predict future sales. In addition, because the production of certain of our products requires long lead times, we enter into agreements for the manufacture and purchase of certain of our products well in advance of the time in which those products will be sold. These contracts are based on our best estimates of our near-term product needs. If we underestimate consumer demand, we may forego revenue opportunities, lose market share and damage our relationships. Conversely, if we overestimate consumer demand, we may purchase more inventory than we are able to sell at any given time, or at all. If we fail to accurately estimate demand for our products, we could have excess or obsolete inventory, resulting in a decline in the value of our inventory, which would increase our costs of revenues and reduce our liquidity. Our failure to accurately manage inventory relative to demand would adversely affect our results of operations. We have relatively limited visibility regarding the consumers that ultimately purchase our products, and we ofte provide timely or accurate information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed.We sell our solutions through dealers and distributors. These dealers and distributors work with consumers to design, install, update and maintain their home automation installations. While we are able to track orders from dealers and distributors and have access to certain information about the configurations of their Control4 systems that we receive through our controller appliances, we also rely on dealers and distributors to provide us with information about consumer behavior, product and system feedback, consumer demographics, buying patterns and information on our competitors. We use this channel sell-through data, along with other metrics, to assess consumer demand for our solutions, develop new products, adjust pricing and make other strategic business decisions. Channel sell-through data is subject to limitations due to collection methods and the third-party nature of the data and thus may not be complete or accurate. In addition, to the extent we collect information directly from consumers, for example through surveys that we conduct, the consumers who supply this sell-through data self select and vary by geographic region and from period to period, which may impact the usefulness of the results. If we do not receive consumer information on a timely or accurate basis, or if we do not properly interpret this information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed. Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate. As a result, we may fail to meet or exceed the expectations of investors or securities analysts, which could cause our stock price to decline. We rely on our dealers and distributors to sell our solution, and if our dealers and distributors fail to perform, our ability to sell and distribute our products and services will be limited, and our results of operations may be harmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK1 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Lol. You guys just need to get rid of your control4 gear and get something else. There is so much bitching and doomsday type posts it's becoming sad.Crestron and savant are not going anywhere.. Neither is Control4. They have some really cool things in the works. It's not diy and they will sell plenty of them. "Crestron and savant are not going anywhere. Neither is Control4" - an unintentional pun or foreshadowing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Leeds UK Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 "We have relatively limited visibility regarding the consumers that ultimately purchase our products, and we ofte provide timely or accurate information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed." "We rely on our dealers and distributors to sell our solution, and if our dealers and distributors fail to perform, our ability to sell and distribute our products and services will be limited, and our results of operations may be harmed. " Two great statements, which mean - We are clueless and do not understand our Customer Base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterwilson Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 "We have relatively limited visibility regarding the consumers that ultimately purchase our products, and we ofte provide timely or accurate information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed." "We rely on our dealers and distributors to sell our solution, and if our dealers and distributors fail to perform, our ability to sell and distribute our products and services will be limited, and our results of operations may be harmed. " Two great statements, which mean - We are clueless and do not understand our Customer Base. CTRL's customer base is its dealers not its end user. It was the primary reason I have never invested in the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokead Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Dealers should be putting pressure on C4 to open up or they will end up with a smaller market share. Not long ago Nest bought Revol and that's a company that understands HABet that board room as some get up and go, unlike the dinosaur C4 have. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-24/google-s-nest-unit-buys-home-automation-startup-revol YouTube video was made before Nest Bought them and now Nest are re-vamping the product. If I was a C4 shareholder I would be praying for Apple/Sony to buy the company.Sleep walking into a niche market - Did love my BlackberryGreat video/adSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokead Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 "We have relatively limited visibility regarding the consumers that ultimately purchase our products, and we ofte provide timely or accurate information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed.""We rely on our dealers and distributors to sell our solution, and if our dealers and distributors fail to perform, our ability to sell and distribute our products and services will be limited, and our results of operations may be harmed. "Two great statements, which mean - We are clueless and do not understand our Customer Base. Looks like a SWOT /environmental scan. If that's part of C4's risk profile, I wonder what they're developing as mitigation strategySent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 It is part of the SWOT from the 10QThis is signed by the BOD. They are hardly blind to the concerns shared here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.