Cyanconnode Share Discussion Threads

[realist1950] 30/1/2018 10:26

This is a question I've posted on another board, hoping to find an answer:

Just looking at CYAN's R&D spend over the years....it's not inconsiderable and runs into many millions of pounds.

They must therefore have a good CTO and a strong product development team.

Given this is a tech company, unusually in CYAN's case, the CTO does not seem to be listed on the companies website.

Does anyone know who the CTO is or who heads up their product development team?

Thank you.

[realist1950] 30/1/2018 10:22

Good morning Johnwall,

Sorry...I had a very busy second half to the day and could not reply.

Thanks for your answer, which I appreciate. At least someone, somewhere online has been prepared to look at the figures and comment.

Just to clarify, it's not a personal dislike of the CEO. I'm a numbers man.

As the issue of cash, raising cash and cash burn has been a pretty central theme to CYAN over the years, I don't think it's unreasonable to question the companies cost base and of course included in that is the matter of staffing costs.

Given that the company has, to date, not achieved any significant revenue (at least not significant enough to enable the company to remain as a going concern without the raising of funds via placings), it's fair to look at what the people running the business are paying themselves and to ask if they're delivering value, or to what extent they're delivering value.

If what you say is correct, to the best of my knowledge, it might imply, in John Cronin's case only, the following:

Over the past three years, he has received the following:

2014 & 2015 renumeration in cash: £682,476

2016 renumeration of approx £350,000 (which was subsequently elected to purchase shares in the company).

If that's incorrect, please do tell me. I'm all ears.

Also, given the statement in the RNS I have previously flagged together with John Cronin's words spoken at the 2016 Investor speech, are we to assume the 2016 figure was for six months service only?

Whether it's for six months, or twelve months (lets say for this example, it's for 12 months) I question whether people think that pay (whether in cash or cash converted into shares) represents value?

You'll all have your own opinions on that.

Personally I think the overall renumeration offered to the BOD at CYAN is extraordinarily generous and not commensurate to what has actually been achieved. But I accept that's just my view and of course others may see it differently.

The last point I would make is, regardless if a director is paid in cash, or paid in cash which he is then obliged to use to buy shares, it still represents a drain on the companies resources.

You have to decide whether the figures in play are something you can comfortably buy into, or, if they're intolerable to you. My decision is governed, in part, by CYAN's past and present funding predicament vs. revenues achieved.

On that basis the renumeration package is more than an awkward reality.

Thanks for your reply all the same.

All without prejudice and in my opinion only. ADYOR.

[lwaxf13] 30/1/2018 08:11

5p would be 0.025p in old money. That would be a major achievement by the Cyan team. I have faith they can do it. Their track record says no problem for them :-)

[lucicavi] 30/1/2018 07:42

Looks like heading for 5p will warn soon enough

[cancun tango] 29/1/2018 22:30

Hi STAVHope you're well. I decided to bite the bullet here recently. It's down 25% since I sold. I've moved on to VRS (+ 20%) and can actually sleep at night now! Much better prospects. CEO is currently on a plane to China with prime minister, so hoping for a contract by the end of the week. There's some useful advice on the advfn threads. The future is bright, the future is nanene!

[stav5001] 29/1/2018 21:33

Hi CT

Money talks
Bulls...t walks

I wish I did a long time ago!

If they pay me £1m, I promise to buy £500ks worth of discounted shares too.

[lwaxf13] 29/1/2018 14:06

Maybe there is a shortage of business savvy talented rabbits and hats in Cambridge.

[cancun tango] 29/1/2018 14:03

So, your investment strategy here is to sit back and wait for a rabbit to be pulled out of a hat? Cyan appear to be very adept at attracting mug punters.

[lwaxf13] 29/1/2018 13:51

An opportunistic bid or doubling of the share to even 40p would mean the shares being sold for 50% less than the share price on the day the world class team arrived. That would represent 5 years of failure and at huge cost to shareholders in terms of losses and those remuneration packages worthy of a Saudi prince.

Even at 80p it would be back to where it was and a 5 year pitiful performance by the team.

[emptyend] 29/1/2018 13:21

....well.....it seems that, on the plus side, in the event that a rabbit is produced from the hat and some real company-changing news emerges, there are a number of people short who would get totally hosed. That may not appear very likely at present but, for example, an opportunistic bid at 40p is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Neither is a doubling of the shares on a biggish order (because we had that once previously).No doubt the usual suspects will be along to explain why that is completely impossible......but, actually, we all know that it isn't. The sums required are relatively modest. :-)

[lwaxf13] 29/1/2018 11:08

This has failure written all over it. They can buy shares and announce all is well until the cows come home but there is no getting away from hard facts - this company fails. It is what it does best.

[cancun tango] 29/1/2018 10:53

The picture looks to me like a disgraceful multi year destruction of wealth. And sill people cling to hope here. Mental.

[emptyend] 29/1/2018 10:43

I think a few people here need to step back and look at the big picture. Either this business will develop and produce meaningful returns over the next few years - or it won't. I am no expert in this area......but there a few on the board who are.So, from the viewpoint of an ignorant shareholder, what matters is that the board's fortunes continue to be aligned with those of shareholders. Today's news is another smallish step in that direction. The board have put in quite a bit (7 figures) of actual cash in recent years, much of it well above today's share price. If they continue to align themselves with shareholders and move the underlying business forward then ultimately I'd expect to see a reasonable return.

[johnwall] 29/1/2018 10:43

realist1950 - you obviously have a personal dislike of JC. That's fine by me - everyone's entitled to their own view about JC, and everyone else.

But what exactly is your point about JC's remuneration?

If it's simply that he's well remunerated for a small and as yet not profitable comapany, again that's fine by me and in fact I have some sympathy with that opinion.

You seem to be implying, however, that there's something 'wrong' with the way his remuneration has been reported. If that's so, I think you need to spell it out if you want other posters to engage with you. AFAICS the way it's reported in the 2016 report is pretty clear -

- the amounts paid to each of the Directors is set out in the 'Directors Emoluments' table on page 34

- the footnote to that table states
"All directors used 100% of their remuneration for the periods July to December 2016 to purchase newly issued shares in the Company. The exact amounts invested by each director are set out earlier in this Remuneration Report, with the total
invested by all directors during 2016 being £674,000."

- the number of shares purchased by each of the Directors during 2016 is set out in the table of 'Director's Interests in Shares in the Company' on page 32 which states that JC purchased 187,459,727 shares at a total cost of £337k

It seems perfectly clear to me that the Directors were paid in cash throughout the period but that for the second six months they used 100% of their remuneration to buy shares from the Company.

Please explain what you think is wrong.

[realist1950] 29/1/2018 10:37

Someone doesn't like Bernstein! :O)

[realist1950] 29/1/2018 10:27

Here's a man who is effectively talking about how great he is....

And as I'm one for quotes:

"so...as a sort of desert, we're going to end this program with a very short overture by, of all people ......ME!" (Smug grin)

And so, as a reminder to us all as to what a 'doer' (as well as a talker) looks like...a man at the height of his powers:

[realist1950] 29/1/2018 10:15

And by the way, if they do announce anything of note tomorrow, JC's purchase 24 hours before will look very bad. Another PR disaster.

[lwaxf13] 29/1/2018 10:11

It's worse than sad. They have overseen a share price plunge in excess of 80% since they arrived but not to worry, everything is ok. Big that one up at tomorrow's dog and pony show.

[realist1950] 29/1/2018 09:54

Who do you think will buy shares and utter incredulous words next?

Harry Berry or Simon Smith?

Sad really...

[lwaxf13] 29/1/2018 09:49

Simple really, it would appear that delivering any significant banked revenue here is beyond the talents of our world leading team. The Sound bites are good though and Eco system of partners to die for and awards and share dilution and all time lows and world leadership in everything including sliced bread. What more could an investor ask for?!!

[realist1950] 29/1/2018 09:36

Why doesn't he just concentrate on delivering banked revenue?

He has been there five years.

[realist1950] 29/1/2018 09:33

Iwaxf13 - no just a bit more bleating about how much money he has put into the company.

Still, with pay running towards half a million pounds in 2015 it shouldn't be too difficult to buy a few more shares, I guess??

[lwaxf13] 29/1/2018 09:29

What did the BOD say? Anything about the remuneration? Anything about what a terrific job they are doing at cyan? Let's give it up for the wonderful bod. World class team. Hip, hip ..,

[dwall] 29/1/2018 09:23

I think your short and are starting to pi*s your pants.

Ok, Ok, im gone.