In this episode, Ron Vanderkley interviews Mark Pivac, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of FBR (formerly Fastbrick Robotics) about the world’s first end-to-end autonomous bricklaying robot, ‘Hadrian X’. Three years after his first interview, we catch up with Pivac to see how FBR has expanded its operation and chat about their latest commercial prototype, ‘Hadrian X’, as well as the future of the robotic construction industry.
Mini-tender offer:
TRC Capital Corp, a private firm founded by a Canadian securities lawyer, has made a mini-tender offer to purchase 250,000 shares of Intuitive Surgical stock at a price slightly below the current market price.
Mini-tender offers, because they are offers to purchase less than 5% of the company’s securities, are not governed by the Securities Exchange Act and don’t need to comply with the disclosures that are in place for larger tender offers. Intuitive Surgical announced today that it does not endorse the offer and recommends that stockholders reject it by not tendering their shares.
Given all the chatter on drones and automation, we thought it would be a good time to dive deeper into the Kiva opportunity and potential impact on leverage/margins. For the sake of our analysis, we take a look at what the Kiva margin impact could be if Kiva automation were to be integrated across all of AMZN’s NA fulfillment operations. In short, we estimate that Kiva could drive fulfillment cost savings in the $450-900M range or be 60-120 bps accretive to CSOI margin in NA alone – underscoring a bigger global opportunity.
On Tuesday, a sleek robotic arm rang the closing bell of the Nasdaq stock exchange. It was the first time a robot performed the task.
The event celebrated the launch of Robo-Stox, a stock index focused on robotics, automation, and related technologies. Thanks to Robo-Stox, individuals and institutions can now easily invest in the continuing growth of the robotics industry worldwide. The index, based on an algorithm and database of robotics I helped develop, is something I’ve dreamed of and worked on for almost eight years.
UPDATE 11/12/13: NASDAQ’s 10-story tall sign was all about Robo-stox LLC, ROBO the ETF, and a Universal Robot with a Schunk hand ringing the NASDAQ closing bell. Quite a spectacle. The arm/hand combo was also used to draw the company logo in a neat video.
NASDAQ:ROBO is a new ETF (exchange traded fund) launched at a price of $25. First day volume was over 225,000 shares.
The new ETF uses a specially formulated index which attempts to reflect the global robotics industry. The index is comprised of 77 companies – 38% domestic; 62% international – in the rapidly developing global robotics and automation industry, with operations in over 15 different countries around the world and listings on multiple foreign and domestic exchanges.
Throughout my 35-year career in the computer business, I always read and thought about what disruptive technology was ahead. When I had an IBM mainframe, I was looking at the DEC mini-computers and even the stand-alone word-processors to see if they could do my work without the humongous monthly lease rates and $250,000 computer room (with its special flooring, power supply and air conditioners) that I was paying for at the time.
Last year Congress passed Title III of the JOBS Act to allow smaller companies to get an exemption from the strict and costly rules controlling the sale of securities to individuals.
The SEC has developed equity crowdfunding rules in response to that law – rules that help companies raise capital but also protect investors from scams. Those rules are now out for community review and will be enacted shortly thereafter.
Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and the others can apply to qualify but there will likely be a flurry of new Internet portals just for this purpose.
Let the Wild West begin anew!
Although the number of procedures using Hansen Medical‘s Magellan and Sensei robotic systems has risen, the number of units sold has fallen slightly and the company continues to operate in the red, hence the need for additional funding.
Hansen’s stock NASDAQ:HNSN, has traded in the $2 to $1.50 range for the last few years and lower this last month.
Oracle Investment Management, a med-tech investment management company headed by Larry N. Feinberg, did the deal and gains a seat on the Hansen board.
Stock drops 13% on news that 3Q and next quarter revenues were and will be static.
Everything else was fine.
Go figure!
After months of negative news about poorly trained surgeons, class action suits claiming poor communications with shareholders, an FDA review, an article saying that procedure costs were too high, particularly for gynecological operations, and an NBC exposé, the news that stuck and affected the stock (NASDAQ:ISRG) where it hurts seems to be the JAMA article.
iRobot’s stock (ISRG:NASDAQ) jumped 15% today on yesterday’s earnings report which exceeded analysts’ expectations for both the quarterly earnings and the annual projections.
Rob Cain replaces John Dulchinos as CEO of Adept Technology. Cain has worked with Adept for the past few months as an advisor and representative of Hale Capital Partners and crafted a restructuring plan approved by the company and it’s financial partners.
February 24, 2021
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