Robohub.org
 

Adept Technologies: Ready to be acquired?

by
11 September 2013



share this:

Adept Technologies (NASDAQ:ADEP) has been in the financial news for months. First because of poor financial showings; then because of a management shakeup; and recently because the “turnaround plan” has worked well enough that shareholders are bidding the stock up to new highs.

In 2010 Adept Technologies acquired MobileRobots and began a process of professionalizing their mobile robots to Adept’s and their customer’s standards — a process that culminated in 2012.
But by 2012 Adept’s earnings were negative and sales were going down. There were layoffs and shifts in people and activities. This lead to a board- and VC-mandated restructuring plan which sent out Rob Cain as an advisor/consultant to develop that plan.
In early 2013 the results were that the CEO was replaced by Cain and the company instituted a series of actions to become profitable. But when this happened there were many rumors and blog reports that the company was to be sold off for it’s patents, customer list and facilities. Others suggested that it was going into bankruptcy.

Last week, the most recent quarterly earnings report came out and it showed that three things happened: (1) the big losses were quelled – the company broke even; (2) clients were buying Adepts products; and (3) the company was focusing on reducing costs, increasing sales and quality. One analyst reported: “While the June 2013 quarter represents a tentative improvement, it shows demand for Adept’s robots is returning and the company has a much lower cost structure than one year earlier.”

The stock rallied to close at $5.90 – an increase of 126% year-to-date yet the market cap is just $64 million. A small price for a good company.

This may be the perfect time for Adept to be acquired. All the big contract manufacturers are buying robots and creating internal robot operations. Foxconn has even set up its own Foxbot line of robots. Flextronics (NASDAQ:FLEX), Foxconn (TPE:2354), Jabil (NYSE:JBL), Celestica (TSE:CLS), New Kinpo, Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) and Benchmark (NYSE:BHE) are perfect candidates.

We’ll just have to wait and see.



tags:


Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 96 – Maria Elena Giannaccini

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Maria Elena Giannaccini from the University of Aberdeen about soft and bioinspired robotics for healthcare and beyond.
01 November 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 95 – Jonathan Walker

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jonathan Walker from Innovate UK about translating robotics research into the commercial sector.
25 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 94 – Esyin Chew

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Esyin Chew from Cardiff Metropolitan University about service and social humanoid robots in healthcare and education.
18 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 93 – Matt Beane

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Matt Beane from the University of California, Santa Barbara about how humans can learn to work with intelligent machines.
11 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 92 – Gisela Reyes-Cruz

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gisela Reyes-Cruz from the University of Nottingham about how humans interact with, trust and accept robots.
04 October 2024, by

Robot Talk Episode 91 – John Leonard

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to John Leonard from Massachusetts Institute of Technology about autonomous navigation for underwater vehicles and self-driving cars. 
27 September 2024, by





Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2024 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association