Category: Tech

October’s Stock Market Performance Has a Valuable Lesson

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: Jordan Doane (500px.com)

Looking Back at October and Forward to Year-End 2022

The stock market for October was a home run for many industries. In fact, only a few market sectors were negative, each by less than one percent. After a losing first three quarters in most categories, investors are now asking, are we out of the losing slump? Did I already miss the best plays? There are still two months left in 2022, and there are a number of expected events that could cause high volatility (up/down). If you’ve been a market spectator, you want to know, should I get on the field and maybe take advantage of this streak? If you’ve been involved and are now at a recent high, you may instead consider taking a seat for the last two months.

Let’s look back and then forward as we enter the final two months of the year. Below we look at the month behind us in stocks, gold, and crypto. There is something that may be unfolding is stocks that is worth steering around.

Major Market Indexes for October

Source: Koyfin

Large industrials, as measured by the Dow 30, had the best comparative performance in October. In fact, the Dow had its best month since 1976. Some investors have been rotating out of large high-tech and into more traditional businesses, like large industrial companies. Another reason it has gotten attention is of the 30 stocks in the Dow Industrials, at least 27 are expected to pay dividends; the lower stock prices from months of decline have raised the expected dividend yields to levels where investors are finding value and doing some reallocating. For example, Dow Chemicals (DOW)with a yield near 5% (plus any appreciations) or Verizon (VZ) at 7% can be appealing, especially for assets of retirees.

The small-cap stocks, as measured by the Russell 2000, weren’t far behind the Dow 30. This group has been lagging for some time and, by many measures, including price/earnings, offers value, while many larger stocks are still considered overpriced. Another thing working in favor of small U.S.-based companies is a likely customer universe that is not hurt by a strong dollar and international trade. In fact, there are small companies that can be shown to have benefitted from a strong native currency and have a competitive advantage with lower borrowing needs. Many analysts expect continued outperformance of the small-cap sector as it offers value and less global disruption.

The top 500 largest stocks, as measured by the S&P 500, had a very good month but are being dragged down by the large weighting of a few huge companies that the market feels have gotten way ahead of where they should be reasonably priced. The Nasdaq 100, shown above as returning only around 3.6%, has been hurt by this index weighting as well. These indexes had once benefitted from these few stocks flying high during the pandemic; the post-pandemic world, as well as global headwinds, are now working against them.

Major Market Indexes Through 10/2022

Source: Koyfin

Investors have been taught that index funds and ETFs provide diversification, but that has never been true of Dow-indexed funds (30 stocks). And the S&P and Nasdaq 100, with heavy weightings in a few companies, only give the illusion of broad exposure. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 relative performance during October may cause more investors to consider hand-selecting companies with lower P/Es, lower global exposure, and higher growth potential.

Sectors Within S&P Index

Source: Koyfin

Oil companies regained their lead as they have been a sector detached from other stocks since late 2019. The industrial sector was second and followed by the only other industry above double digits, finance. Most (not all) financial companies benefit from higher interest rates, and those that take deposits (short-term) and lend money (long-term) do best with a steep yield curve.

On the bottom of the list are consumer discretionary companies, which are hurt by the strong dollar and a weakening economy; this sector is followed by communication. Communication is worth a deeper dive as it exemplifies how the weighting of stocks in popular indexes can hurt index returns – some say high-flying, highly weighted stocks are even in a bubble.

Below the chart compares two names in the S&P 500 that are also represented in the communications index. Meta (META) is 17.70% of the index and is down 30% in October. AT&T (T) is 4.70% of the communications index; it returned nearly 20% for the month. The funds weighting methodology that worked to the advantage of index investors, until it didn’t, has worked against some index investors.

Source: Koyfin

There is a rivalry of sorts between larger, more accepted cryptocurrencies and gold. Gold wants to regain its centuries-old place as the hard asset that best represents safety, even in the worst conditions, and Bitcoin or Ether, which is looking for respect, as the alternative asset that represents safety.

Crypto has been loosely moving in the same direction as stocks all year. October was no exception, as its price per dollar rose significantly during the month. Gold, despite much worry in the world, continued a slow downtrend.

Gold and Bitcoin Performance

Source: Koyfin

Take Away

Stock market participants that held on finally got a month where it was hard not to come out ahead. The question now is, do you take the gains and sit tight while the fed tightening, election, war, and global recession settle? Or do you look at the current dynamics and allocate where the highest probability of success lies? Maybe small-cap value stocks or oil and gas companies.

There is one thing investors have been warned about repeatedly over the years by well-respected investors, including Michael Burry. There is a risk inherent in indexes now that a few extremely “overpriced” stocks represent a large percentage of index funds.

Investors evaluating smaller, individual stocks have found the data and analysis on Channelchek to be indispensable. Be sure to sign-up for Channelchek at no cost to receive unbiased research on companies that are less talked about, but may have a place in your portfolio mix.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

Sources

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1062

https://indexarb.com/dividendYieldSorteddj.html

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/xlc/holdings

$1.8 Billion Cancer “Moonshot” includes MCED Development

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: Karolina Grawbowska (Pexels)

A Blood Test that Screens for Multiple Cancers at Once Promises to Boost Early Detection

Detecting cancer early before it spreads throughout the body can be lifesaving. This is why doctors recommend regular screening for several common cancer types, using a variety of methods. Colonoscopies, for example, screen for colon cancer, while mammograms screen for breast cancer.

While important, getting all these tests done can be logistically challenging, expensive and sometimes uncomfortable for patients. But what if a single blood test could screen for most common cancer types all at once?

This is the promise of multicancer early detection tests, or MCEDs. This year, President Joe Biden identified developing MCED tests as a priority for the Cancer Moonshot, a US$1.8 billion federal effort to reduce the cancer death rate and improve the quality of life of cancer survivors and those living with cancer.

This article was republished with permission from The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It represents the research-based findings and thoughts of Colin Pritchard, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington.

As a laboratory medicine physician and researcher who develops molecular tests for cancer, I believe MCED tests are likely to transform cancer screening in the near future, particularly if they receive strong federal support to enable rapid innovation.

How MCED Tests Work

All cells in the body, including tumor cells, shed DNA into the bloodstream when they die. MCED tests look for the trace amounts of tumor DNA in the bloodstream. This circulating “cell-free” DNA contains information about what type of tissue it came from and whether it is normal or cancerous.

Testing to look for circulating tumor DNA in the blood is not new. These liquid biopsies – a fancy way of saying blood tests – are already widely used for patients with advanced-stage cancer. Doctors use these blood tests to look for mutations in the tumor DNA that help guide treatment. Because patients with late-stage cancer tend to have a large amount of tumor DNA circulating in the blood, it’s relatively easy to detect the presence of these genetic changes.

MCED tests are different from existing liquid biopsies because they are trying to detect early-stage cancer, when there aren’t that many tumor cells yet. Detecting these cancer cells can be challenging early on because noncancer cells also shed DNA into the bloodstream. Since most of the circulating DNA in the bloodstream comes from noncancer cells, detecting the presence of a few molecules of cancer DNA is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Making things even more difficult, blood cells shed abnormal DNA naturally with aging, and these strands can be confused for circulating cancer DNA. This phenomenon, known as clonal hematopoiesis, confounded early attempts at developing MCED tests, with too many false positive results.

Fortunately, newer tests are able to avoid blood cell interference by focusing on a type of “molecular barcode” embedded in the cancer DNA that identifies the tissue it came from. These barcodes are a result of DNA methylation, naturally existing modifications to the surface of DNA that vary for each type of tissue in the body. For example, lung tissue has a different DNA methylation pattern than breast tissue. Furthermore, cancer cells have abnormal DNA methylation patterns that correlate with cancer type. By cataloging different DNA methylation patterns, MCED tests can focus on the sections of DNA that distinguish between cancerous and normal tissue and pinpoint the cancer’s origin site.

DNA contains molecular patterns that indicate where in the body it came from. (CNX OpenStax/Wikimedia Commons)

Testing Options

There are currently several MCED tests in development and in clinical trials. No MCED test is currently FDA-approved or recommended by medical societies.

In 2021, the biotech company GRAIL, LLC launched the first commercially available MCED test in the U.S. Its Galleri test claims to detect over 50 different types of cancers. At least two other U.S.-based companies, Exact Sciences and Freenome, and one Chinese company, Singlera Genomics, have tests in development. Some of these tests use different cancer detection methods in addition to circulating tumor DNA, such as looking for cancer-associated proteins in blood.

MCED tests are not yet typically covered by insurance. GRAIL’s Galleri test is currently priced at $949, and the company offers a payment plan for people who have to pay out of pocket. Legislators have introduced a bill in Congress to provide Medicare coverage for MCED tests that obtain FDA approval. It is unusual for Congress to consider legislation devoted to a single lab test, and this highlights both the scale of the medical market for MCED and concerns about disparities in access without coverage for these expensive tests.

How Should MCED Tests be Used?

Figuring out how MCED tests should be implemented in the clinic will take many years. Researchers and clinicians are just beginning to address questions on who should be tested, at what age, and how past medical and family history should be taken into account. Setting guidelines for how doctors will further evaluate positive MCED results is just as important.

There is also concern that MCED tests may result in overdiagnoses of low-risk, asymptomatic cancers better left undetected. This happened with prostate cancer screening. Previously, guidelines recommended that all men ages 55 to 69 regularly get blood tests to determine their levels of PSA, a protein produced by cancerous and noncancerous prostate tissue. But now the recommendation is more nuanced, with screening suggested on an individual basis that takes into account personal preferences.

Another concern is that further testing to confirm positive MCED results will be costly and a burden to the medical system, particularly if a full-body scan is required. The out-of-pocket cost for an MRI, for example, can run up to thousands of dollars. And patients who get a positive MCED result but are unable to confirm the presence of cancer after extensive imaging and other follow-up tests may develop lifelong anxiety about a potentially missed diagnosis and continue to take expensive tests in fruitless search for a tumor.

Despite these concerns, early clinical studies show promise. A 2020 study of over 10,000 previously undiagnosed women found 26 of 134 women with a positive MCED test were confirmed to have cancer. A 2021 study sponsored by GRAIL found that half of the over 2,800 patients with a known cancer diagnosis had a positive MCED test and only 0.5% of people confirmed to not have cancer had a false positive test. The test performed best for patients with more advanced cancers but did detect about 17% of the patients who had very-early-stage disease.

MCED tests may soon revolutionize the way clinicians approach cancer screening. The question is whether the healthcare system is ready for them.

Stem Cell Research is Helping to Understand Reproductive Risks in Space

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: Karl Schultz

Pregnancy in Space: Studying Stem Cells in Zero Gravity May Determine Whether it’s Safe

Space is a hostile, extreme environment. It’s only a matter of time before ordinary people are exposed to this environment, either by engaging in space tourism or by joining self-sustaining colonies far away from Earth.

To this end, there needs to be a much better understanding of how the environmental dangers of space will affect the biology of our cells, tissues, organs, and cognition. Crucially for future space colonies, we need to know whether we can easily reproduce in environments other than those found on Earth.

The effects of radiation on our cells, producing DNA damage, are well documented. What’s less clear is how lower levels of gravity, what scientists call microgravity, will affect the mechanisms and rhythms taking place within our cells.

Scientists are only just beginning to investigate how activity in our cells might be affected by exposure to microgravity. Crucially, experiments on embryonic stem cells, and models of how embryos develop in their first few weeks in space, will help us determine whether it’s possible for humans to produce offspring in the extraplanetary colonies of the future.

Cosmic Conception

The ability to reproduce in space has been assessed in a few animals, including insects, amphibians, fish, reptiles, birds, and rodents. They have found that it’s certainly possible for organisms such as fish, frogs and geckos to produce fertilised eggs during spaceflight that can live and reproduce on Earth.

But the picture is more complicated in mammals. A study of mice, for instance, found that their oestrous cycle, part of the reproductive cycle, was disrupted by exposure to microgravity. Another study found that exposure to microgravity caused negative neurological alterations in rats. Hypothetically, these effects could also be transmitted to subsequent generations.

This likely happens because our cells did not evolve to work in microgravity. They evolved over millions of years on Earth, in it’s unique gravitational field. Earth’s gravity is part of what anchors and exerts physical force on our tissues, our cells, and our intracellular contents, helping to control specific movements within cells. The study of this is called mechanobiology.

The division of cells and the movement of genes and chromosomes within them, which is crucial to the development of a foetus, also works with and against the force of gravity as we know it on Earth. It follows that systems evolved to work perfectly in Earth’s gravity may be affected when the force of gravity changes.

Fetal Position

When an embryo first starts to divide, in a process called cleavage, the rate of division can be faster at one end of the embryo than the other. Gravity plays a role here, determining the position of the very first building blocks in a human life.

gravity also helps to establish the correct body plan of a fetus, ensuring the right cells develop in the right places in the right numbers and in the right spatial orientation.

Researchers have investigated whether embryonic stem cells, which are “pluripotent” and can develop into all cells of the body, are affected by microgravity. At present, there is some evidence that when rodent embryonic stem cells are subjected to microgravity, their ability to become the desired cell types may be impacted.

It is also possible to produce pluripotent human stem cells from normal mature cells of our bodies, which are called induced pluripotent stem cells. These have also been studied under microgravity, with experiments on Earth finding that induced stem cells proliferate faster in simulated microgravity. Two batches of these stem cells are currently on the International Space Station to see whether these results can be replicated in space.

If adult stem cells do proliferate faster in space, it could open the door for commercial stem cell manufacturers to produce these cells in orbit, seeing as it’s difficult to culture enough stem cells on Earth to treat degenerative diseases with stem cell therapies.

Gravitational Field

Besides normal cellular processes, it’s also unclear how fertilization, hormone production, lactation, and even birth itself will be affected by exposure to microgravity.

It seems that short-term exposure to microgravity, of perhaps half an hour, will probably not have too much of an effect on our cells. But longer exposures of days or weeks are likely to have an effect. This is not taking into account the effect of radiation on our cells and DNA, but we already know how to protect against radiation.

Scientists are looking at two ways to protect against the adverse effects of microgravity on our biology: intervention at the cellular level, using drugs or nanotechnology, and intervention on the environmental level, by simulating Earth’s gravity in spacecraft or off-world colonies. Both fields of study are in their early stages.

Still, studying stem cells in space provides a valuable window into how pregnancy could work, or not work when we’re outside Earth’s gravitational field. For now, those fortunate enough to go to space might do well to avoid attempting to conceive before, during or directly after a space flight.

Less Expensive Batteries Don’t Always Come from Cheaper Materials

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: 24M Technology (MIT News)

Zach Winn | MIT News Office

When it comes to battery innovations, much attention gets paid to potential new chemistries and materials. Often overlooked is the importance of production processes for bringing down costs.

Now the MIT spinout 24M Technologies has simplified lithium-ion battery production with a new design that requires fewer materials and fewer steps to manufacture each cell. The company says the design, which it calls “SemiSolid” for its use of gooey electrodes, reduces production costs by up to 40 percent. The approach also improves the batteries’ energy density, safety, and recyclability.

Judging by industry interest, 24M is onto something. Since coming out of stealth mode in 2015, 24M has licensed its technology to multinational companies including Volkswagen, Fujifilm, Lucas TVS, Axxiva, and Freyr. Those last three companies are planning to build gigafactories (factories with gigawatt-scale annual production capacity) based on 24M’s technology in India, China, Norway, and the United States.

“The SemiSolid platform has been proven at the scale of hundreds of megawatts being produced for residential energy-storage systems. Now we want to prove it at the gigawatt scale,” says 24M CEO Naoki Ota, whose team includes 24M co-founder, chief scientist, and MIT Professor Yet-Ming Chiang.

Establishing large-scale production lines is only the first phase of 24M’s plan. Another key draw of its battery design is that it can work with different combinations of lithium-ion chemistries. That means 24M’s partners can incorporate better-performing materials down the line without substantially changing manufacturing processes.

The kind of quick, large-scale production of next-generation batteries that 24M hopes to enable could have a dramatic impact on battery adoption across society — from the cost and performance of electric cars to the ability of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels.

“This is a platform technology,” Ota says. “We’re not just a low-cost and high-reliability operator. That’s what we are today, but we can also be competitive with next-generation chemistry. We can use any chemistry in the market without customers changing their supply chains. Other startups are trying to address that issue tomorrow, not today. Our tech can address the issue today and tomorrow.”

A Simplified Design

Chiang, who is MIT’s Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, got his first glimpse into large-scale battery production after co-founding another battery company, A123 Systems, in 2001. As that company was preparing to go public in the late 2000s, Chiang began wondering if he could design a battery that would be easier to manufacture.

“I got this window into what battery manufacturing looked like, and what struck me was that even though we pulled it off, it was an incredibly complicated manufacturing process,” Chiang says. “It derived from magnetic tape manufacturing that was adapted to batteries in the late 1980s.”

In his lab at MIT, where he’s been a professor since 1985, Chiang started from scratch with a new kind of device he called a “semi-solid flow battery” that pumps liquids carrying particle-based electrodes to and from tanks to store a charge.

In 2010, Chiang partnered with W. Craig Carter, who is MIT’s POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and the two professors supervised a student, Mihai Duduta ’11, who explored flow batteries for his undergraduate thesis. Within a month, Duduta had developed a prototype in Chiang’s lab, and 24M was born. (Duduta was the company’s first hire.)

But even as 24M worked with MIT’s Technology Licensing Office (TLO) to commercialize research done in Chiang’s lab, people in the company including Duduta began rethinking the flow battery concept. An internal cost analysis by Carter, who consulted for 24M for several years, ultimately lead the researchers to change directions.

That left the company with loads of the gooey slurry that made up the electrodes in their flow batteries. A few weeks after Carter’s cost analysis, Duduta, then a senior research scientist at 24M, decided to start using the slurry to assemble batteries by hand, mixing the gooey electrodes directly into the electrolyte. The idea caught on.

The main components of batteries are the positive and negatively charged electrodes and the electrolyte material that allows ions to flow between them. Traditional lithium-ion batteries use solid electrodes separated from the electrolyte by layers of inert plastics and metals, which hold the electrodes in place.

Stripping away the inert materials of traditional batteries and embracing the gooey electrode mix gives 24M’s design a number of advantages.

For one, it eliminates the energy-intensive process of drying and solidifying the electrodes in traditional lithium-ion production. The company says it also reduces the need for more than 80 percent of the inactive materials in traditional batteries, including expensive ones like copper and aluminum. The design also requires no binder and features extra thick electrodes, improving the energy density of the batteries.

“When you start a company, the smart thing to do is to revisit all of your assumptions  and ask what is the best way to accomplish your objectives, which in our case was simply-manufactured, low-cost batteries,” Chiang says. “We decided our real value was in making a lithium-ion suspension that was electrochemically active from the beginning, with electrolyte in it, and you just use the electrolyte as the processing solvent.”

In 2017, 24M participated in the MIT Industrial Liaison Program’s STEX25 Startup Accelerator, in which Chiang and collaborators made critical industry connections that would help it secure early partnerships. 24M has also collaborated with MIT researchers on projects funded by the Department of Energy.

Enabling the Battery Revolution

Most of 24M’s partners are eyeing the rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) market for their batteries, and the founders believe their technology will accelerate EV adoption. (Battery costs make up 30 to 40 percent of the price of EVs, according to the Institute for Energy Research).

“Lithium-ion batteries have made huge improvements over the years, but even Elon Musk says we need some breakthrough technology,” Ota says, referring to the CEO of EV firm Tesla. “To make EVs more common, we need a production cost breakthrough; we can’t just rely on cost reduction through scaling because we already make a lot of batteries today.”

24M is also working to prove out new battery chemistries that its partners could quickly incorporate into their gigafactories. In January of this year, 24M received a grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program to develop and scale a high-energy-density battery that uses a lithium metal anode and semi-solid cathode for use in electric aviation.

That project is one of many around the world designed to validate new lithium-ion battery chemistries that could enable a long-sought battery revolution. As 24M continues to foster the creation of large scale, global production lines, the team believes it is well-positioned to turn lab innovations into ubiquitous, world-changing products.

“This technology is a platform, and our vision is to be like Google’s Android [operating system], where other people can build things on our platform,” Ota says. “We want to do that but with hardware. That’s why we’re licensing the technology. Our partners can use the same production lines to get the benefits of new chemistries and approaches. This platform gives everyone more options.”

Reprinted with permission of MIT News  ( http://news.mit.edu/)

Blackboxstocks (BLBX) – Unsettled Markets Impacting Results

Posted on by cpatches


Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Blackboxstocks, Inc. is a financial technology and social media hybrid platform offering real-time proprietary analytics and news for stock and options traders of all levels. Our web-based software employs “predictive technology” enhanced by artificial intelligence to find volatility and unusual market activity that may result in the rapid change in the price of a stock or option. Blackbox continuously scans the NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, CBOE, and all other options markets, analyzing over 10,000 stocks and up to 1,500,000 options contracts multiple times per second. We provide our users with a fully interactive social media platform that is integrated into our dashboard, enabling our users to exchange information and ideas quickly and efficiently through a common network. We recently introduced a live audio/video feature that allows our members to broadcast on their own channels to share trade strategies and market insight within the Blackbox community. Blackbox is a SaaS company with a growing base of users that spans 42 countries; current subscription fees are $99.97 per month or $959.00 annually. For more information, go to: www.blackboxstocks.com .

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

3Q22 Revenue Guidance. Late last week Blackboxstocks management announced that revenue for the third quarter, ended September 30, 2022, will be between $1.15 million and $1.25 million, which is below the $1.4 million of revenue reported in the second quarter of 2022 and would be the lowest level of reported revenue in over seven quarters.

Poor Stock Market Performance. The poor performance of the overall stock market over an extended period has impacted new customer acquisition as retail traders have become increasingly hesitant to enter the markets. However, with the new products scheduled to be released in 2023 in Stock Nanny and the Pro version of the Company’s product, we believe the products will expand on the Company’s TAM while also regaining its lost subscriber momentum.


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This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Michael Burry Wonders Aloud if Facebook Knows What It Wants to Be

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: Marco Verch (Flickr)  

Is Meta the Wrong Path for Facebook, or is it Just Ahead of its Time?

Not all ideas are good ideas, even when they come from billionaire tech start-up founders like Mark Zuckerberg.

Michael Burry, the legendary investor of “Big Short” fame, has been criticizing the social media giant’s metaverse strategy. Burry joins others in questioning why Zuck would change the Facebook formula and spend billions embracing something that is far from real. Many of Zuckerberg’s critics are other successful billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban. Other critics are investors that have endured Meta share’s 62.3% ($570 billion) decline since January.  

Burry founded and manages the hedge fund Scion Asset Management. Burry tweeted a message that seems to say Meta management blew it – and suggests they have blown it by historic proportions by taking a deep dive into something that may or may not have legs – the metaverse.

Image: @BurryDeleted (Twitter)

You don’t have to have been alive in the mid-1980s to know what Burry was saying when he posted, “Seems Meta has a New Coke problem.” Any business school textbook lists Coca-Cola’s changing the formula of its best-selling product as the #1 lesson in corporate blunders. It was an expensive change that failed miserably and caused the company to revert back to its original product or risk losing a lot more ground against rivals.

A Sweet Refresher

New Coke was a much sweeter version of the Coca-Cola people had become accustomed to using to wash down their pizza slices, or a burger and fries. It was introduced by Coca-Cola in April 1985 during the cola war Pepsi was waging.

At the time Coca Cola was perhaps one of the most recognized brands in the world. But, Pepsi stole customers after it ran a few Michael Jackson commercials suggesting its sugar water was the “choice of a new generation,” and also backed it up with ads showing blind taste test preferences. Between the taste test science and everyone wanting to be more like Michael Jackson, Coke lost market share. Coke reacted by reformulating its product and did its own blind side-by-side tests that indicated that consumers seemed to prefer the new sweeter taste, similar to Pepsi. The company then decided to market the reformulated recipe – New Coke was born.

Max Headroom was the spokesman for New Coke, Like the Grand Canyon (Flickr)

New Coke was introduced in April 1985, and within weeks they were receiving 5,000 angry calls a day. The number grew from there. Seventy-nine days after their initial announcement, Coca-Cola held a press conference in July 1985 to offer a mea culpa and announce the return of the original Coca-Cola “classic” formula.

Will Zuckerberg Relent?

So far, Facebook, I mean Meta, still wants to identify as a metaverse company, despite there being very few metaverse customers. The company is making sure users have accessories available and just unveiled a new virtual reality headset selling for $1,500 called the Meta Quest Pro. Zuckerberg says lower priced, presumably not “pro,” will follow ($300-$500 zone).

When one has built a business from a college dorm, a garage, or their mother’s basement, and it attains the kind of growth that Facebook, Apple, Amazon, or others have, it’s hard to keep growing at the pace investors and other onlookers have become accustomed to. This leads to a scenario where investors are exposed to a risk best described as the bigger they are, the farther they have to fall.  

And Facebook has fallen, not just in dollar value, but in ranking among its peers. Does this mean Zuckerberg is not right? The game isn’t over, and there aren’t many of us that can say, with honesty, that we are more forward-looking or have more luck than Zuck.

Is Michael Burry Right?

There is a whole universe of stocks beyond metaverse investments. Huge successful companies like Facebook or even Coca-Cola have ample resources to build and grow but lose nimbleness and growth potential, unlike the potential smaller companies enjoy. Huge companies are also more likely to have a “say yes to the boss, and you’ll be rewarded” culture, rather than a small company culture which is more “show the boss you can make them money, and you’ll be rewarded” culture.

Zuckerberg and Meta may very well be moving forward with a mistake that could be enshrined in textbooks years from now. However, like Coke, they may find that if it’s a lemon, they can make lemonade. Coca-Cola emerged from the brief departure from their main product strengthened as consumers discovered what life was like without their favorite soft drink.

Take Away

Michael Burry is worth paying attention to. He thinks differently and has been correct enough to always listen. The metaverse is new; does this mean it won’t grow and become something only a visionary like Mark Zuckerberg can imagine? It has been an expensive and slow start. I suspect Facebook was much less expensive to get off the ground, and adoption also required ancillary products to be useable by the masses.

A lesson investors should remember from this is how difficult it is for large companies to grow from their current offerings and huge corporate base.

Channelchek is a platform created to help investors uncover the next Apple, the next Moderna, or the next Facebook. It’s a resource to dig deeper into these less celebrated fledgling opportunities and to leave investors with enough understanding to decide whether they should take their own action by buying stock and becoming an owner of something with greater than average potential.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek  

Sources

https://www.history.com/news/why-coca-cola-new-coke-flopped

https://www.thestreet.com/technology/big-short-burry-says-facebook-and-zuckerberg-are-in-big-trouble

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/technology/meta-zuckerberg-metaverse.html

Medical Device Improves Muscle Rehab Accuracy by 15%

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: MIT CSAIL

MIT System “Sees” the Inner Structure of the Body During Physical Rehab

Rachel Gordon | MIT CSAIL

A growing number of people are living with conditions that could benefit from physical rehabilitation — but there aren’t enough physical therapists (PTs) to go around. The growing need for PTs is racing alongside population growth, and aging, as well as higher rates of severe ailments, are contributing to the problem.

An upsurge in sensor-based techniques, such as on-body motion sensors, has provided some autonomy and precision for patients who could benefit from robotic systems to supplement human therapists. Still, the minimalist watches and rings that are currently available largely rely on motion data, which lack more holistic data a physical therapist pieces together, including muscle engagement and tension, in addition to movement.

This muscle-motion language barrier recently prompted the creation of an unsupervised physical rehabilitation system, MuscleRehab, by researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Massachusetts General Hospital. There are three ingredients: motion tracking that captures motion activity, an imaging technique called electrical impedance tomography (EIT) that measures what the muscles are up to, and a virtual reality (VR) headset and tracking suit that lets a patient watch themselves perform alongside a physical therapist.

Patients put on the sleek ninja-esque all-black tracking suit and then perform various exercises such as lunges, knee bends, dead lifts, leg raises, knee extensions, squats, fire hydrants, and bridges that measure activity of quadriceps, sartorius, hamstrings, and abductors. VR captures 3D movement data.

In the virtual environment, patients are given two conditions. In both cases, their avatar performs alongside a physical therapist. In the first situation, just the motion tracking data is overlaid onto their patient avatar. In the second situation, the patient puts on the EIT sensing straps, and then they have all the information of the motion and muscle engagement.

With these two conditions, the team compared the exercise accuracy and handed the results to a professional therapist, who explained which muscle groups were supposed to be engaged during each of the exercises. By visualizing both muscle engagement and motion data during these unsupervised exercises instead of just motion alone, the overall accuracy of exercises improved by 15 percent.

The team then did a cross-comparison of how much time during the exercises the correct muscle group got triggered between the two conditions. In the condition where they show the muscle engagement data in real-time, that’s the feedback. By monitoring and recording the most engagement data, the PTs reported a much better understanding of the quality of the patient’s exercise, and that it helped to better evaluate their current regime and exercise based on those stats.

“We wanted our sensing scenario to not be limited to a clinical setting, to better enable data-driven unsupervised rehabilitation for athletes in injury recovery, patients currently in physical therapy, or those with physical limiting ailments, to ultimately see if we can assist with not only recovery, but perhaps prevention,” says Junyi Zhu, MIT PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science, CSAIL affiliate, and lead author on a new paper about MuscleRehab. “By actively measuring deep muscle engagement, we can observe if the data is abnormal compared to a patient’s baseline, to provide insight into the potential muscle trajectory.”

Current sensing technologies focus mostly on tracking behaviors and heart rates, but Zhu was interested in finding a better way than electromyography (EMG) to sense the engagement (blood flow, stretching, contracting) of different layers of the muscles. EMG only captures muscle activity right beneath the skin, unless it’s done invasively.

Zhu has been digging into the realm of personal health-sensing devices for some time now. He’d been inspired by using EIT, which measures electrical conductivity of muscles, for his project in 2021 that used the noninvasive imaging technique to create a toolkit for designing and fabricating health and motion sensing devices. To his knowledge, EIT, which is usually used for monitoring lung function, detecting chest tumors, and diagnosing pulmonary embolism, hadn’t been done before.

With MuscleRehab, the EIT sensing board serves as the “brains” behind the system. It’s accompanied by two straps filled with electrodes that are slipped onto a user’s upper thigh to capture 3D volumetric data. The motion capturing process uses 39 markers and a number of cameras that sense very high frame rates per second. The EIT sensing data shows actively triggered muscles highlighted on the display, and a given muscle becomes darker with more engagement.

Currently, MuscleRehab focuses on the upper thigh and the major muscle groups inside, but down the line they’d like to expand to the glutes. The team is also exploring potential avenues in using EIT in radiotherapy in collaboration with Piotr Zygmanski, medical physicist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Radiation at Harvard Medical School.

“We are exploring utilization of electrical fields and currents for detection of radiation as well as for imaging of the of dielectric properties of patient anatomy during radiotherapy treatment, or as a result of the treatment,” says Zygmanski. “Radiation induces currents inside tissues and cells and other media — for instance, detectors — in addition to making direct damage at the molecular level (DNA damage). We have found the EIT instrumentation developed by the MIT team to be particularly suitable for exploring such novel applications of EIT in radiotherapy. We are hoping that with the customization of the electronic parameters of the EIT system we can achieve these goals.”

MuscleRehab Video

“This work advances EIT, a sensing approach conventionally used in clinical settings, with an ingenious and unique combination with virtual reality,” says Yang Zhang, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, who was not involved in the paper. “The enabled application that facilitates rehabilitation potentially has a wide impact across society to help patients conduct physical rehabilitation safely and effectively at home. Such tools to eliminate the need for clinical resources and personnel have long been needed for the lack of workforce in healthcare.”

Reprinted with permission of MIT News” (http://news.mit.edu/)

Elon Musk’s Smoking New Product

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: DonkeyHotey (Flickr)

Elon Musk’s Hair-Brained Ideas are Very Marketable

If your last name was Musk and one of your companies created a perfume, what would you name it? Perhaps Eau de Elon, or S3XY, an outlandish guess would be Neurastink, or simply Elon’s Musk. Here’s a hint, Musk’s perfume is a product of The Boring Company, the company that builds tunnels to enable rapid point-to-point transportation. Before this fragrance thrower, the company’s only other product was a flame thrower. So naturally, the company decided to call their new perfume, Burnt Hair. And it has already sold $1,000,000 worth.

Image: The Boring Company

A bottle of what his company referred to as ‘the essence of repugnant desire,’ will set you back about Ð1,666 or $100 USD. That’s if you buy it online. There is now an Ebay aftermarket where resellers are looking to fetch up to Ð16,666 for the product that was only released this week – 10,000 bottles of Burnt Hair have already been sold as of Wednesday morning.

“Just like leaning over a candle at the dinner table, but without all the hard work” – Boring Company Website

Image: The Boring Company

When he’s not tunneling, launching rockets, reinventing things on four wheels, neuralinking, or tweeting, Musk does keep busy with other strokes of brilliance. Did you know that in 2020 Tesla (TSLA) launched its own brand of tequila? That year Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker,  also offered limited edition satin short-shorts.

Image Credit: Tesla

It isn’t clear what the inspiration was for this new product entry; developing a perfume that has earned revenue of $1,000,000 within a couple of days of launch is quite a feat, although certainly easier than colonizing Mars, and buying a microblogging social media company. Two things on Musk’s To-Do list that he seems to have fallen behind on.  

The Boring Company product page doesn’t say whether the fragrance is a limited edition item – just in time for Halloween or a long-term offering from The Boring Company. Something more exciting than a company that usually just sells holes in the ground.

Paul Hofman

Managing Editor, Channechek

Sources

https://www.boringcompany.com/burnthair

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/oddly-enough/elon-musk-sells-1-million-worth-quirky-new-perfume-burnt-hair-2022-10-12/

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/ShortShorts

Uses for Blockchain Beyond Crypto are Growing

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Christian Bucad (Flickr)

Why Blockchain Could Mean Fewer Hassles for Students and Workers Proving their Credentials

Microcredentials — attestations of proficiency in a specific skill or knowledge base that are certified by an authority — can provide evidence of a person’s skills to employers.

While microcredentials are becoming more popular, the concept is hardly new: A driver’s license or the St. John Ambulance certificate could be considered as microcredentials, attesting respectively to a person’s driving skill or their competency in administering first aid.

Blockchain technology is appropriate for microcredential implementation. Blockchain can best be described as a digital ledger that records information that can be shared among a community of users. Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are the best-known examples of blockchain, but blockchain has uses beyond financial transactions.

Student records stored in blockchain for security limit access only to legitimate users, such as institutional administrators and potential employers selected by students or job seekers. Traditionally, institutions own and control certifications like degrees, but that could shift with “digital degrees” and microcredentials that rely on blockchain.

Verifying Accomplishments

Besides providing effective security and privacy for users, blockchain can also facilitate the maintenance and dissemination of the credentials, while ensuring that access is readily available for students under their control.

Because of its immutability, blockchain can be used to attest to and verify students’ accomplishments. This is important for students seeking to have their credits recognized, whether because they are studying to obtain new professional accreditation, studying in multiple institutions or because they are moving for study or employment.

Blockchain is distributed, meaning that multiple copies of the same information are stored on different computers. So, blockchain is not controlled by any central authority and the “blocks” in the “chain,” linked chronologically, are shared in a P2P (peer-to-peer) network, which can be accessed from any node or point on the network.

These blocks are immutable, as any change to the original leaves the first iteration intact and accessible.

When students or job seekers want to have credits transferred between institutions, gatekeepers — for example, post-secondary institutions or employers — typically insist on receiving copies of diplomas and degrees directly from each institution. As more students gain credentials from multiple institutions, this process becomes increasingly untenable.

Students need to control this process and blockchain can provide a solution.

Securely Validates Learning

In 2019, McMaster University announced it was awarding “digital degrees” using blockchain to Faculty of Engineering students after the university implemented microcredentials using blockchain to securely validate students’ learning.

Some post-secondary institutions are implementing pilot projects with eCampus Ontario and industry partners to award microcredentials using blockchain.

Microcredentials are now offered by post-secondary institutions, sometimes in partnership with corporations to target labor market needs. These may come in the form of “digital badges.” Digital badges are easily verifiable testaments to when, where and how skills have been mastered. Metadata in digital badges allows viewers to click on the badge to learn things like criteria for earning the badge, the date it was issued or when it expires.

Maintaining Privacy of Data

Certification by blockchain begins when a trusted institution issues the microcredential and creates a blockchain. The student then sends a public key password to the institution, requesting a transcript be sent to a potential employer.

The institution then adds a block onto the blockchain and sends the micro-credential, which is verified and forwarded to the potential employer. The learners can keep private keys to their credentials in an offline digital wallet.

Maintaining the privacy of the data is essential. With blockchain, the ownership of the microcredential rests with the individual, not the institution.

Blockchain supports more control for students and has the capability of further democratizing education. It empowers students to maintain control of their now-secure credentials and allows them to be confident their acquired skills and knowledge will be valued.

Potential Concerns

However, there are some ethical and logistical concerns. Right now, when a person seeks to transfer credits through traditional channels, they can choose which documents or certifications to share with employers: mistakes or aspects of one’s past credentials and experience deemed less salient or undesirable can be addressed or ignored.

But blockchain is immutable and this immutability can cause its own problems when mistakes cannot be erased.

Students cannot omit blocks from the chain that they do not feel are appropriate or that could damage their reputation. So, how can they create different narratives for diverse purposes or highlight and/or hide different experiences? What happens if someone wants or needs to start anew? Is there a right to forget?

What if a student loses their key? The New York Times reports that lost passwords have locked millionaires out of their bitcoin fortunes. Will students and workers fare any better when it comes to academic and professional records? Who will respond to these problems within institutions?

These are questions post-secondary institutions and our society at large will increasingly need to navigate.

This article was republished with permission from The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It represents the research-based findings and thoughts of Rory McGreal, Professor and UNESCO/ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources, Athabasca University.

Does BNY Mellon’s Crypto Plans Have Hamilton Rolling Over in His Grave?

Posted on by phoffman@channelchek.com
Image Credit: Todd Martin (Flickr)

The United States Oldest Bank Embraces Safekeeping Cryptocurrency Alongside Other Assets

The nation’s oldest bank, founded in 1784, began taking deposits of cryptocurrency today. BNY Mellon, with roots in the Bank of New York and Alexander Hamilton, is now the first large U.S. bank to custody client’s bitcoin and ether.

The bank will store the keys required to access and transfer crypto and provide the same bookkeeping services on digital currencies it offers for stocks, bonds, commodities, and other assets. BNY Mellon is one of the largest and most trusted in the business of traditional safekeeping; they now have made history by adding this additional service for investment managers to clear, service and safe keep digital assets.

As America’s oldest bank, BNY Mellon has a 238-year legacy on which to build. As a company it provided the first loan to the U.S. to fund the Revolutionary War and has weathered as many different financial eras as the country that it has helped build. Back in February 2021, BNY Mellon formed its enterprise Digital Assets Unit to develop services for digital asset technology. The goal was to launch the industry’s first multi-asset platform that provides safekeeping for digital and traditional assets.

“Touching more than 20% of the world’s investable assets, BNY Mellon has the scale to reimagine financial markets through blockchain technology and digital assets,” said Robin Vince, Chief Executive Officer and President at BNY Mellon. “We are excited to help drive the financial industry forward as we begin the next chapter in our innovation journey.”

Image Credit: Mark Holler (Flickr)

BNY Mellon recognizes the significant institutional demand for a resilient, scalable financial infrastructure designed to accommodate digital assets alongside traditional ones. The bank had previously surveyed money managers that use their safekeeping services and found almost all institutional investors (91%) are interested in investing in tokenized products. Additionally, 41% of institutional investors hold cryptocurrency in their portfolios today, with an additional 15% planning to hold digital assets in their portfolios within the next two to five years. Safekeeping them all under one system will benefit clients.

BNY Mellon has been working closely with market-leading fintech firms. The firm tapped digital asset technology specialists Fireblocks and Chainalysis to integrate their technology in order to meet the present and future security and compliance needs of clients across the digital asset space.

 BNY Mellon is a global investment company helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Clients include institutions, corporations, and individual investors. It delivers investment management, wealth management, and investment services in 35 countries. As of June 30, 2022, BNY Mellon had $43.0 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $1.9 trillion in assets under management. BNY BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK).

“As the world’s largest custodian, BNY Mellon is the natural provider to create a safe and secure Digital Asset Custody Platform for institutional clients,” said Caroline Butler, CEO of Custody Services at BNY Mellon. “We will continue to innovate, embrace new technology and work closely with clients to address their evolving needs.”

“With Digital Asset Custody, we continue our journey of trust and innovation into the evolving digital assets space, while embracing leading technology and collaborating with fintechs,” said Roman Regelman, CEO of Securities Services & Digital at BNY Mellon.

Take Away

The world is changing, and even the oldest bank in the U.S. is getting on board with the changes. The addition of BNY Mellon as a holder of cryptocurrency keys is a big nod to the crypto management industry. Portfolio managers of all sizes are now able to provide statements with a wider variety of asset classes held. Does this mean the newcomers that now transact and hold cryptocurrency will either be bought or lose potential large customers? That remains to be seen.

 Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

Sources

https://www.bnymellon.com/us/en/about-us/newsroom/press-release/bny-mellon-launches-new-digital-asset-custody-platform-130305.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-could-threaten-financial-system-federal-risk-panel-warns-11664826496?mod=article_inline

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-oldest-bank-bny-mellon-will-hold-that-crypto-now-11665460354?mod=djemalertNEWS

Quantum Technology’s Use in Encryption and Medical Equipment

Posted on by aweinsoff@channelchek.com
Image Credit: Carlos Jones (U.S. Dept. of Energy)

Nobel-Winning Quantum Weirdness Undergirds an Emerging High-Tech Industry, Promising Better Ways of Encrypting Communications and Imaging Your Body

Two quantum particles, like pairs of atoms or photons, can become entangled. That means a property of one particle is linked to a property of the other, and a change to one particle instantly affects the other particle, regardless of how far apart they are. This correlation is a key resource in quantum information technologies.

For the most part, quantum entanglement is still a subject of physics research, but it’s also a component of commercially available technologies, and it plays a starring role in the emerging quantum information processing industry.

Pioneers

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics recognized the profound legacy of Alain Aspect of France, John F. Clauser of the U.S. and Austrian Anton Zeilinger’s experimental work with quantum entanglement, which has personally touched me since the start of my graduate school career as a physicist. Anton Zeilinger was a mentor of my Ph.D. mentor, Paul Kwiat, which heavily influenced my dissertation on experimentally understanding decoherence in photonic entanglement.

Decoherence occurs when the environment interacts with a quantum object – in this case a photon – to knock it out of the quantum state of superposition. In superposition, a quantum object is isolated from the environment and exists in a strange blend of two opposite states at the same time, like a coin toss landing as both heads and tails. Superposition is necessary for two or more quantum objects to become entangled.

Entanglement Goes the Distance

Quantum entanglement is a critical element of quantum information processing, and photonic entanglement of the type pioneered by the Nobel laureates is crucial for transmitting quantum information. Quantum entanglement can be used to build large-scale quantum communications networks.

On a path toward long-distance quantum networks, Jian-Wei Pan, one of Zeilinger’s former students, and colleagues demonstrated entanglement distribution to two locations separated by 764 miles (1,203 km) on Earth via satellite transmission. However, direct transmission rates of quantum information are limited due to loss, meaning too many photons get absorbed by matter in transit so not enough reach the destination.

Entanglement is critical for solving this roadblock, through the nascent technology of quantum repeaters. An important milestone for early quantum repeaters, called entanglement swapping, was demonstrated by Zeilinger and colleagues in 1998. Entanglement swapping links one each of two pairs of entangled photons, thereby entangling the two initially independent photons, which can be far apart from each other.

Quantum Protection

Perhaps the most well known quantum communications application is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), which allows someone to securely distribute encryption keys. If those keys are stored properly, they will be secure, even from future powerful, code-breaking quantum computers.

While the first proposal for QKD did not explicitly require entanglement, an entanglement-based version was subsequently proposed. Shortly after this proposal came the first demonstration of the technique, through the air over a short distance on a table-top. The first demonstrations of entangement-based QKD were published by research groups led by Zeilinger, Kwiat and Nicolas Gisin were published in the same issue of Physical Review Letters in May 2000.

These entanglement-based distributed keys can be used to dramatically improve the security of communications. A first important demonstration along these lines was from the Zeilinger group, which conducted a bank wire transfer in Vienna, Austria, in 2004. In this case, the two halves of the QKD system were located at the headquarters of a large bank and the Vienna City Hall. The optical fibers that carried the photons were installed in the Vienna sewer system and spanned nine-tenths of a mile (1.45 km).

This article was republished with permission from The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It represents the research-based findings and thoughts of Nicholas Peters, Joint Faculty, University of Tennessee.

Entanglement for Sale

Today, there are a handful of companies that have commercialized quantum key distribution technology, including my group’s collaborator Qubitekk, which focuses on an entanglement-based approach to QKD. With a more recent commercial Qubitekk system, my colleagues and I demonstrated secure smart grid communications in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Quantum communications, computing and sensing technologies are of great interest to the military and intelligence communities. Quantum entanglement also promises to boost medical imaging through optical sensing and high-resolution radio frequency detection, which could also improve GPS positioning. There’s even a company gearing up to offer entanglement-as-a-service by providing customers with network access to entangled qubits for secure communications.

There are many other quantum applications that have been proposed and have yet to be invented that will be enabled by future entangled quantum networks. Quantum computers will perhaps have the most direct impact on society by enabling direct simulation of problems that do not scale well on conventional digital computers. In general, quantum computers produce complex entangled networks when they are operating. These computers could have huge impacts on society, ranging from reducing energy consumption to developing personally tailored medicine.

Finally, entangled quantum sensor networks promise the capability to measure theorized phenomena, such as dark matter, that cannot be seen with today’s conventional technology. The strangeness of quantum mechanics, elucidated through decades of fundamental experimental and theoretical work, has given rise to a new burgeoning global quantum industry.

Comtech Telecommunications (CMTL) – A New Chapter

Posted on by cpatches


Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. engages in the design, development, production, and marketing of products, systems, and services for advanced communications solutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Telecommunications Transmission, Mobile Data Communications, and RF Microwave Amplifiers. The Telecommunications Transmission segment provides satellite earth station equipment and systems, over-the-horizon microwave systems, and forward error correction technology, which are used in various commercial and government applications, including backhaul of wireless and cellular traffic, broadcasting (including HDTV), IP-based communications traffic, long distance telephony, and secure defense applications. The Mobile Data Communications segment provides mobile satellite transceivers, and computers and satellite earth station network gateways and associated installation, training, and maintenance services; supplies and operates satellite packet data networks, including arranging and providing satellite capacity; and offers microsatellites and related components. The RF Microwave Amplifiers segment designs, develops, manufactures, and markets satellite earth station traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA) and broadband amplifiers. Its amplifiers are used in broadcast and broadband satellite communication; defense applications, such as telecommunications systems and electronic warfare systems; and commercial applications comprising oncology treatment systems, as well as to amplify signals carrying voice, video, or data for air-to-satellite-to-ground communications. The company serves satellite systems integrators, wireless and other communication service providers, broadcasters, defense contractors, military, governments, and oil companies. Comtech markets its products through independent representatives and value-added resellers. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.

Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Joshua Zoepfel, Research Associate, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

Turn the Page. With the appointment of Ken Peterman as CEO and President, Comtech is entering a new chapter, in our view. With a track record of building and creating sustainable, profitable growth, we believe Mr. Peterman will be able to capitalize on the high-growth opportunity set in front of Comtech.

Convergence. A key theme from Mr. Peterman is the belief of a coming “convergence” between the satellite and space communications and terrestrial and wireless communications, or Comtech’s two core markets. With an unsurpassed skill set across both of these areas, we believe Comtech is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this coming convergence.


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*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Release – Digerati Announces Appointment of Derek Gietzen to President

Posted on by aweinsoff@channelchek.com

Research, News, and Market Data on DTGI

SAN ANTONIO, October 3, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) Digerati Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: DTGI) (“Digerati” or the “Company”), a provider of cloud services specializing in UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions for the small to medium-sized business (“SMB”) market, today announced that Derek Gietzen has been named as the Company’s President. Currently, Mr. Gietzen is President of NextLevel Internet (“NextLevel”), a Digerati subsidiary.

Mr. Gietzen is an experienced 20-year telecommunications executive with a track record of managing successful high-growth companies. In addition to achieving consistent double-digit growth at NextLevel, Mr. Gietzen’s passion for creating amazing corporate cultures led NextLevel to be recognized as a certified ‘Great Place to Work in the U.S’, for each of the last three years.

“Since our acquisition of NextLevel earlier this year, Derek has been instrumental in the operational integration of Digerati’s various subsidiaries,” said Arthur L. Smith, Chief Executive Officer. “Derek is an inspirational leader who perfectly aligns with our core values and brings the added skills necessary to successfully execute our business plan and ongoing M&A strategy. We are confident his contribution will enhance our ability to deliver on our corporate goals and assist us with creating long-term shareholder value.”

“This is an exciting time for Digerati, and I am thrilled to be taking on the role of President of the combined operations,” said Derek Gietzen. “We have an amazing leadership team, and I look forward to all we can accomplish.”

About Digerati Technologies, Inc.

Digerati Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: DTGI) provides cloud services specializing in UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions for the business market. Through its operating subsidiaries NextLevel Internet (NextLevelinternet.com), T3 Communications (T3com.com), Nexogy (Nexogy.com), and SkyNet Telecom (Skynettelecom.net), the Company is meeting the global needs of small businesses seeking simple, flexible, reliable, and cost-effective communication and network solutions including, cloud PBX, cloud telephony, cloud WAN, cloud call center, cloud mobile, and the delivery of digital oxygen on its broadband network. The Company has developed a robust integration platform to fuel mergers and acquisitions in a highly fragmented market as it delivers business solutions on its carrier-grade network and Only in the Cloud™. For more information, please visit www.digerati-inc.com and follow DTGI on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes certain statements that are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “confident,” “accomplish,” “enhance,” “ability,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements like ‘we are confident his contribution will enhance our ability to deliver on our corporate goals and assist us with creating long-term shareholder value,’ are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by any investor or other person as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Digerati. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to general economic, financial, legal, political and business conditions and changes in domestic and foreign markets.

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