Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNIN) this week reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013 and in the release (and in the earnings call – the transcript as ever makes a good read) Scott Koller, president and CEO of Wireless Ronin proves once again that he doesn’t quite understand the technology that is supposed to underpin his business.
We quote “RoninCast 4.0 software aligns perfectly with Samsung’s new open source digital signage platform …. “.
Now whilst Samsung have claimed this ‘open source’ nonsense before in their press briefings (Samsung’s Smart Signage Platform is not smart and not open let alone ‘open source‘) none of those digital signage software vendors aligning themselves with The Galactic Empire have ever been foolish enough to utter the term ‘open source’ in the same sentence as Samsung.
The elephant in the room is of course that Samsung has bought up (sorry, we mean ‘retained’) most of the industry consultants in North America and not one will now stand up and say (or write) what bollocks nonsense Samsung’s (or Ronin’s) ‘open source’ claim is. The fact that the CEO and President of a NASDAQ listed company should be so misguided (and let’s face it ‘wrong’) should be a bit unnerving (but as Ronin investors have found out to their cost, there has been a lot of ‘unnerving‘ for many a year now).
Anyway, Ronin’s first quarter ended March 31, 2013 saw revenue down 25%, a net loss of USD 1.4M, same as gross revenue, and cash net of new financing decreased USD 600K indicating (wait for it) that the cash burn is now down to USD 50K a week. Wow!
As usual though, Ronin tried to put a good spin on all that news. We loved the line “We now provide industry-leading technology and have world class relationships to capitalize on our growing pipeline and the tremendous industry opportunities” – indeed, but as Count Dooku once said “Good. Twice the pride, double the fall”.
The real news is that Ronin is still not a pretty picture – they sold their biggest vertical market to Delphi for cash and as with all those other vendors lining up with the Galactic Empire, their dealings with Samsung will lead to only one place – that which brings Sith rule to the galaxy.
May 10th, 2013 at 15:18 @679
Adrian,
You are always a good read – very entertaining, informative and sometimes, unfortunately for some of those that you report on; spot on!!
Happy Hunting for that next juicy subject…………my simpathy to those that stand in your wake.
Ron Dooh
May 13th, 2013 at 19:56 @872
I don’t know how much you can blame Scott Koller on this. He took a position that was open, but the company from the days of Mack never had a scalable model that could produce a profit. The re-occurring revenue from their help desk – NOC are as high as ever, but it’s still hard to say whether that is enough to pay for the team of people who work in support. The best route at this point would be for someone to buy the NOC portion of their business and shut the rest of the business down.