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City of Industry,
Calif.—November 18, 2003—Global ePoint, Inc. (the Company)
(Nasdaq: GEPT) reported financial results for its third-quarter and nine
months ended September 30, 2003. In addition, the Company announced that
it anticipates record revenues for its 2003 fourth quarter.
As previously reported, in August 2003 Global ePoint completed the acquisition
of 100% of McDigit, Inc. (McDigit) pursuant to a definitive agreement
executed on March 31, 2003. As a result of the acquisition, the Company
now has two main divisions, one manufactures industrial, business, and
consumer computers, through a subsidiary that commenced operations in
2001, and the other is developing long-range video, audio, and data transmission
systems based on the technology acquired from Sequent Technologies, Inc.
in March 2003. The acquisition of McDigit by Global ePoint has been recorded
for accounting purposes as a reverse acquisition whereby McDigit has been
treated as the accounting acquirer and Global ePoint, the pre-acquisition
public entity, has been treated as the accounting acquiree. Accordingly,
all historical presentations of the Company’s results of operations
set forth herein are those of McDigit’s prior to August 2003 and
those of Global ePoint’s and McDigit’s combined for and after
August 2003.
Third-quarter 2003 net sales for the Company increased 55% to $3.9 million,
from $2.5 million in the 2002 third quarter. Substantially all of the
sales during the third quarter were generated by the Company’s industrial,
business, and consumer computer division. McDigit’s digital video
surveillance division (Sequent division) continued its pre-sales initial
market and product development efforts and has not yet generated significant
sales.
The net income of the Company prior to the costs and expenses of its Sequent
division increased 150% to $524,000 for the 2003 third quarter, from $209,000
for the 2002 third quarter. The Company believes that disclosing its operating
results net of the costs and expenses related to its Sequent division
provides meaningful insight into the Company’s on-going economic
performance and therefore uses this type of information internally to
evaluate and manage the Company’s operations. The Company has chosen
to provide this supplemental information to investors to enable them to
perform additional comparisons of operating results and as a means to
emphasize the results of its more mature computer division. The costs
and expenses incurred in the initial market and product development efforts
of the Sequent division totaled $522,000 in the 2003 third quarter with
no comparable costs in the 2002 third quarter. As a result, the consolidated
net income of the Company totaled $2,000, or less than one cent per share,
for the 2003 third quarter, versus $209,000, or five cents per share,
for the 2002 third quarter.
Nine-month 2003 net sales for the Company increased 22% to $8.3 million,
from $6.8 million in the 2002 nine-month period. Similar to the third
quarter, substantially all of the sales were generated by the Company’s
industrial, business, and consumer computer division. The net income of
the Company prior to the costs and expenses of its Sequent division increased
77% to $932,000 for the 2003 nine-month period, from $526,000 for the
2002 nine-month period. The costs and expenses incurred in the initial
market and product development efforts of the Sequent division totaled
$1.5 million in the 2003 nine-month period with no comparable costs in
the 2002 nine-month period. As a result, the Company incurred a net loss
for the 2003 nine-month period of $558,000, or nine cents per share, versus
net income of $524,000, or eleven cents per share, for the 2002 nine-month
period.
The Company announced that it anticipates revenues of approximately $10
million to $13 million for the 2003 fourth quarter, versus revenues of
$2.5 million for the 2002 fourth quarter. If achieved, this would represent
record quarterly revenues for the Company and a 400% increase from the
comparable quarter in 2002. This revenue guidance is based on orders from
customers that are generally cancelable or may be delayed without significant
penalty and, in addition, is a forward looking statement made pursuant
to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995 (see below).
Toresa Lou, Global ePoint’s Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"We are pleased with our third-quarter sales growth compared to last
year’s third quarter sales and to be looking forward to fourth-quarter
sales that could alone exceed our sales for all of last year, which totaled
$9.2 million. However, despite strong growth in our computer division,
we have not progressed as quickly as we anticipated with our overall business
plans. Our progress was significantly impacted by delays in completing
the merger between Global ePoint and McDigit in the summer, which required
an additional three months to complete, and the amount of management and
internal resources required to integrate operations and business plans.
With those delays now over, we are looking forward to making substantial
progress in the coming quarter.
“Since August, management has been transforming Global ePoint into
an advanced technology developer and manufacturer with the potential for
higher growth. During this process we have not only focused on internal
transformation, but also on identifying and developing new growth opportunities
for the Company. In addition to managing our existing operations, we have
been diligently moving forward in three primary areas of our business
strategies: finding growth opportunities for our computer division; reviewing
and assessing market development and technological feasibility for our
digital video surveillance technology, and; identifying and reviewing
potential strategic alliances and technology acquisitions.
“With respect to our computer division, as a result of our efforts
in the 2003 third quarter, we are now well positioned to accommodate future
growth opportunities and benefit from economies of scale. Our growth thus
far has been directly attributable to our ability to provide flexible,
cost-effective, turnkey manufacturing solutions to customers in need of
robust, cost effective personal computers for industrial, business and
consumer applications. Our operations and facilities have been structured
to enable us, should we obtain the orders, to produce in excess of two
hundred million dollars in annual sales. We plan to continue our efforts
in developing opportunities in various vertical markets and are excited
about this potential for expanding revenue sources.
“With respect to our Sequent digital video surveillance division,
during the third quarter we continued to further develop the technology
related to its products and gather market data on our technology. In October,
as a result of our efforts, we announced the use of our technology in
the installation and operation of the first wireless digital video surveillance
system for a major law enforcement agency, the City of Riverside police
department. This first major installation holds attractive promise for
future sales growth and, although the sales momentum we initially anticipated
has been slow in progressing, we remain excited about the potential of
this very large market. We are now reviewing our sales and marketing plans
as well as our product development plans, so that we can determine the
most effective approach to build brand recognition and product acceptance
in not only the law enforcement area, but in other large security and
surveillance markets.We believe that through continual product development
and through introduction of new advanced technologies, we have the potential
to enter those new markets, realize cost efficiencies of larger-scale
production, and thereby create even broader market opportunities, for
example at the consumer level.
“With respect to strategic alliances and technology partnerships,
in October 2003 we announced a strategic alliance with a software solutions
provider focused on developing real-time encoding, streaming and transcoding
for standard-based audio-visual communication. Our focus in this area
is to create relationships with leading edge technology partners in order
to further develop software solutions designed for digital video applications,
such as streaming, surveillance, conferencing, broadcasting and content
authoring, as well as real-time video compression and streaming. We believe
these strategic alliances may not only benefit our current vertical market
development focus in Law Enforcement and Homeland Security, but also expand
our vertical markets for this technology. We plan to continue identifying
and reviewing other similar strategic opportunities for the Company.
“We believe we have created a strong foundation to make Global ePoint
an exciting growth-oriented company. As a result of higher order flows
for our computer products and subcontract manufacturing, indications of
growing acceptance of the Company’s systems and technologies, and
the expected results of increased activities in sales and marketing, we
anticipate record fourth quarter 2003 revenues, “ Lou stated.
About Global
ePoint
In August 2003, Global ePoint completed a merger that has transformed
the Company into an emerging growth technology company consisting of two
main operating divisions. One operating division manufactures customized
computers and provides comprehensive computer solutions for the industrial,
business, consumer, and contract-manufacturing markets. That division
currently supplies approximately 80% of the industrial computers to major
suppliers of x-ray security equipment for the airline industry. The division
is expanding its manufacturing into other markets, such as consumer retail
sales, medical applications and PC gaming applications. The Company's
other operating division, Sequent Technologies, is establishing initial
market acceptance of its long-range video, audio and data transmission
systems. Sequent's digital video surveillance systems are designed to
transmit video, audio, and data streams from anywhere using virtually
any data transmission system and the Internet. Sequent's ability to network
video surveillance systems and provide secure access via existing Internet,
cellular, and computer interfaces is designed to enhance the potential
use of video in law enforcement, public safety, commercial security, homeland
security, airport/airline, and military applications. For more information
on Global ePoint, go to www.globalepoint.com.
Safe Harbor
Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this
release other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current
expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's
beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject
to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words
such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends,"
"plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks,"
"estimates," "may," "will," "should,"
"would," "could," "potential," "continue,"
similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are
subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results could
differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking
statement.
Important factors
that may cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, the
general economic slowdown, including the continuing significant economic
slowdown in the information technology sector; the rate at which our present
and future customers adopt our emerging technologies and products; decreases
in the levels of government expenditures, including authorizations for
law enforcement and security related programs; our limited operating history;
the speculative nature of revenues from our Sequent division ; our inability
to successfully integrate the operations of Global ePoint and McDigit;
changes in government procurement procedures; competitive pressures and
other factors such as the availability and pricing of competing products
and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our
products; the lengthy and variable sales cycles for our products; increased
governmental regulation of communications monitoring; the loss of key
customers, including the loss of business from any related party with
which we do business; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete,
introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and
technologies; the risk of further dilution in connection with the issuance
of additional shares of common stock; our ability to identify new markets
for our products; the risk that unshipped orders for our products can
generally be canceled or delayed without significant penalty; our failure
to develop strategic alliances; undetected technological defects in our
products; intellectual property ownership issues; our continued reliance
on a relatively small number of customers for a substantial portion of
our revenues; the effects of new and emerging technologies; the inability
to expand or maintain relationships with value added resellers, system
integrators and other strategic and technology partners; and intellectual
property disputes and customer indemnification claims, settlements and
other types of litigation risk.
Our Annual Report
on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other Securities and
Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other
important risk factors and information that could contribute to such differences
or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial
condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as
of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update
publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason. |