Filtronic Share Discussion Threads

[chestnuts] 03/1/2020 21:14

mesquida

THey are assumptions, but i think they are good assumptions who else would sell an antenna business when the world is crying out for antennas and for a miserly £5m , and after failing to design an antenna for a major customer, and then not looking at them selves to see where they went wrong. Yes i would have sacked people but then i would have got my finger out and start talking to customers to see what are their needs and then designed an antenna.
You bet the new owners will be doing just what i have said.

[mesquida] 03/1/2020 20:49

I don't think that he has answered your question Bazworth !

[chestnuts] 03/1/2020 19:58

Bazworth

FTC as just sold an antenna business when the world is crying out for antennas, this alone says there is some thing wrong with the management how can they not make a go of it.

[bazworth] 03/1/2020 17:35

chestnuts,

Are your comments based on knowledge or assumption?

[chestnuts] 03/1/2020 17:10

Kazoom

Basicly FTC were a sub contractor for Nokia, i am not joking after they were giving the sack by T Mobile , FTC should have bi passed Nokia and gone straight to T Mobile/Sprint and talked to them and talked to them. After all FTC are suppose to be leaders not followers. They just give up and sold the antenna business

I bet the buyers of FTC antennas will do very well

[kazoom] 03/1/2020 15:07

Hi Chestnuts,

Re: "a manufacturer and designer didnt talk to its prospective customers ie T mobile and asked what they wanted , its quite simple really."

I disagree, firstly the direct relation with T-Mobile was Nokia with FTC sitting behind that, but T-Mobile changed their mind. My initial thought was that it must have been because of a problem with the FTC tech, but from what I understand it was a Sprint decision rather than T-Mobile. Still a bit puzzling though that Nokia weren't able to line up a string of other customers.

"Backhaul

This indeed should be good for filtronic, but i doubt it will move the share price like 5g antennas would have ."

I do agree with you there, backhaul could be quite a big upside for FTC, but antennae could have been huge.

[estienne] 03/1/2020 14:16

Chesnuts is right. The trouble is that the Filtronics management is so incestuous; riddled with Leeds University old boys going back to the days of David Rhodes. They were incapable of taking one sensible business decision and following it through

[mad foetus] 02/1/2020 21:27

Agree this is a good board with sensible people who know more than I do. I think the prospect of a takeover is always here as well. While the share price will never get to where we hoped it was going 15 months ago, I can't see buying at under 10p and holding as anything other than a good bet. But may need patience of course

[chestnuts] 02/1/2020 21:20

Backhaul

This indeed should be good for filtronic, but i doubt it will move the share price like 5g antennas would have .

I will also add the manufacturer of beta and vhs was probably the same company so they probably were not bothered who won the race.

[chestnuts] 02/1/2020 21:15

Kazoom

We are of same age, but Beta vrs vhs was different the uk public chose, this is one of those things where a manufacturer and designer didnt talk to its prospective customers ie T mobile and asked what they wanted , its quite simple really.

In life you can be proactive or reactive and T Mobile are neither,

I have a small business and i talk to my customers and advise them all the time to make sure i get the best job done for the customer, just recently i have been in discussion with an architect over her choice of materials for a cathedral and i first refused to do the job as the architect in my opinion was wrong and the job would have looked bad, eventually they came around to my idea and the customer is really pleased and so is the architect. Its good to talk

Filtronic in my opinion as not been proactive or reactive

[kazoom] 02/1/2020 20:47

Thanks for responding chestnuts,

I was worried that this was going to become one of those stupidly fractured threads where no-one of different opinions talk to each other.

Respectful sharing of contrary views is SOOOO much more valuable imho.

I am not far from your opinion tbh. But I do believe that this was a Betmax vs VHS moment (if you are younger than me, you might have to google it!).

I don't think they could back both horses, so they backed the choice of their lead customer, but that turned out to be the wrong bet.

Backhaul - is a different business (with similar

[chestnuts] 02/1/2020 19:48

Kazoom

There is probably only 2 or 3 different type of 5g antennas needed around the world filtronic should have been ready which ever the end user needed ie T mobile, and when T mobile rejected there antenna they should have developed an antenna which would have suited the job, lets face it they will simply need millions of these antennas as 5g takes off, now if that iant missing the boat i dont know what is, I


I bet the new owners of the Antenna business must be rubbing their hands with the prospects of 5g

[kazoom] 02/1/2020 19:27

mesquida,

I agree with you that chestnuts has given no evidence of poor management and that the change of mind from T-Mobile was difficult for FTC to predict (although the merger itself was hardly a surprise and perhaps both Nokia & FTC should considered the risk more carefully).

What bugs me about that though was that T-mobile US was potentially just the first of many potential deployments globally, but when the implementation died so seemingly did the whole proposition - why? Was there some other fundamental advantage to the alternative bandwidth?

Anyway that is all water under the bridge now - with the Antennae division sold (for not a bad price, given I had written it down to zero) - the 5G opportunity for FTC now lies in upgrading the backhaul networks, it's a smaller market, but hardly trivial and even a modest success could result in a significant re-rating.

I retain a small position but am waiting for proper evidence of traction before I consider "going large".

[slicethepie] 02/1/2020 18:25

Sadly most nomads these days are asleep at the wheel and would rather let the mm buy and sell stock with a nasty spread than do something that would help the company.

[mesquida] 02/1/2020 18:17

And thanks for asking how I am, wisecat, i am good, And hope that you are too .

[mesquida] 02/1/2020 18:03

Totally agree that we are due a re-rating , wisecat , but clearly Legals will be keeping a lid on this price for some time , so loafofbread's suggestion of a buy back ( after all, we are now cash rich ) has some merit , don't you think ?

[wisecat2] 02/1/2020 17:43

Mesquida ( hope you are well ) you are on the ball there as usual. But lets give the management some credit. The end customer may have cancelled that very large order but within months they have been replacing that business while still in the 5G market. We are due a rerating.

[mesquida] 02/1/2020 17:10

Loafofbread, your point re buying back L&G stake, very valid comment, well worth passing on to the Company/Nomad, in my opinion.

[mesquida] 02/1/2020 17:07

No, chestnuts, i think that you are being unfair, there was no way that Filtronic were to know that Nokia's end customer was going to be acquired by another Company who were using a different frequency. In today's world technology is a wild card, and even the best management in the world cannot guess exactly where we are going ! When Filtronic first announced their initial MIMO orders with Nokia I do not remember you posting "well, ok, but what if T Mobile etc.....". Point taken ?

[bazworth] 02/1/2020 17:02

chestnuts,

Just wondering how you have the expertise or experience to cast such a strong view regarding the management of FTC? Hope you don’t mind me asking!!

Cheers

[chestnuts] 02/1/2020 16:52

Mesquida

FTC as missed one of the biggest opportunities any company could of had in the antenna business, Ftc AS STRUGGLED BECAUSE OF MISMANAGEMENT, this is why the share price is so low, i cant help ifs and buts if ftc had been managed better the share price would have taken advantage of the 5G revolution which is coming.

[robow] 02/1/2020 16:33

thanks for highlighting

[mesquida] 02/1/2020 16:30

Re today's RNS.....nice clean exit from a troublesome business, now surely the rump deserves a re-rating.