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Ocelot77 - It's your viewpoint and has it's merits, I'm certainly not against adding services, it's simply that I believe they should be focused on their stated core strategy and look for complimentary offerings that enhance the sales pitch and generate revenue (not costs).
Developing new IP/software needs to be approached very carefully and carefully timed, history is littered with thousands of examples of companies that tried and failed. IMO for now Loopup have enough on their plate with masses of customer leads, and I expect them to adapt their offering as appropriate.
What you suggest is great in theory- but is it doable/sensible for lookup now with limited finances, I think not you think yes.
For it to turn into a yes for me, the company needs to present a compelling business case to do it, they have said they expect material growth in 2022 and to add suitable offerings; there is no business case for jeopardising that when waiting until the cash starts rolling in and compounding from cloud sales minimises risk and maximises cash flow. and ultimately will satisfy shareholders. Lets see the money rolling in first!
I believe the current strategy is a simple and an excellent approach so we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
An example of competitor that claims to be regulated in 25+ countries, offers direct routing for Teams but has a wider portfolio Telynx, and therefore true ability to land and expand.
For the smaller business who really has limited technology the limited telco connected to Teams may suffice.
To win the big enterprises Loop need as customers and partners, be it Walmart, TATA (yes I know they have telco), Rexam, Nestle, Roche, Shell etc they have telco/net communication requirements beyond Teams, and cases for integration with those Teams services. Using a Vonage, Message Bird, Telnyx to name just a few competitors that have grown quick, and established traction over a shorter period than Loop, I can’t accept the limited proposition is adequate to succeed. Unless, they aim to get acquired simply for the pstn reach and add the teams specialism.
Re meeting zone and webex/Cisco, that heritage is a resell of a managed video conference hardware and service. Yes it can use sip, but in most parts it will connect to a customers existing connectivity and I’d be surprised if Loop tried to sell backhaul, they certainly don’t promote it, and there’s little value add anyway. Now if they provided sip trunking for Cisco’s Broadsoft/VoIP services, that’d be a token attempt to grow their potential market.
Ocelot77 - I've read some of your old posts and though I agree to the majority of what you say, you like the rest of us seem to struggle with the BoD's silence.
You started by saying how honourable the CEO's are "Overall the management are a good bunch and the co-CEO's always strike me as remarkably ethical. " and deteriorate to being worried about a MBO - welcome to the "Concerned Shareholder" club. It is natural for us to worry and start imagining the worst when someone goes below the radar as they have - are they sulking, can't they take criticism, and are perhaps blaming AIM shareholders for the demise of the SP rather than accepting personal responsibility. Why don't they just put their hands up and face shareholders to clear the air.
That's where my worries lie, that they throw in the towel or take action to cover their own errors (I agree with you and would go further, Meetingzone was a disaster, and it was incompetently merged). I'd just like to see them come out of the cupboard they're hiding in with some positivity and fighting talk not an excuse - in that case shareholders will stick with them.
Where I disagree with you is, I'm not worried in the slightest about their Cloud proposition, I think they've got it right, there is plenty of room for them to carve out a successful business (evidence suggests the strategy is working) - they don't need a unique proposition/IP. This will come good, and can by really good if the BoD work at it diligently and don't betray us.
WRT Cisco they are still in there via MeetingZone - they are not highlighting it because Teams are obviously seen as the future, they supposedly have reduced MZ headcount to about 55 employees - so presumably if they have the legacy MeetingZone clients and are acting simply as a reseller with low operational costs that should be contributing nicely to profitability. I think your view that a sort of broad-brush approach to selling multi-vender MS alternatives is wrong - they need to focus limited resources on the biggest prize, win or lose they need to be fully focused.
https://meetingzone.com/services/
I have said this all along about Loop. Their offering isn’t that unique, bar the number of regulated countries, and that they should not just be focused on Microsoft.
If anyone wants insight, to the industry, and some guidance on Loops proposition and how it stacks up, you’ll find pointers in my previous posts.
Excellent contribution jointhedots. Bravo!
Ian.B - you say "Gamma cam on radar as their sp has fallen off a cliff "
My god, I wish Loopup's SP had simple fallen off the same cliff as Gamma, their SP has merely retraced from a high by around 20% back to where it was 2 months ago.
Putting Loopup aside, they appear to have done very well and the purpose of my post was not to criticise, more to point out the prize Loopup are playing for and that they have so far failed miserably to secure. Gamma's P/E is 28 whilst Loopup's is 3.35 (ii fugures).
As P/E is largely about shareholder confidence and resulting support, that's why it's such a powerful metric, it takes out company size and allows broad comparisons (at least IMO).
I see it this way, if Loopup build a company with track record and expected growth profile on par with Gamma their P/E could also approach 28 with substantially higher earing than any to date, why not. I'm not saying it will, merely that it would be the likely outcome of success
At 28, that provides for a SP of £3.34 without even accounting for any earnings growth.
Clearly we are a long way from that position, but bear in mind they are targeting multi-nationals, any success with a big outfit changes everything IMO, even Zoom saw fit to highlight 3 multi-nationals sign ups, there are many companies with 100,000+ employees.
Your point wrt why should anyone contract with choose Loopup over Gamma. Well, as I said I'm not knocking Gamma, but Loopup have focused on strong Global presence and particularly US, Gamma according to their own words are European focused and have a broad sales and products focus - different focus.
Why would anyone choose any supplier other than the likes of Cisco, Microsoft, Google, IBM - it's because they have specific needs that they judge are better addressed elsewhere - I suppose ultimately the question is do Loopup have a compelling proposal to offer clients - that's what they are out trying to prove right now.
There is room for everyone Loopup, Gamma and a boat load of other second tier operators, provided that their service is competitive.
WRT your second point, I would say there is most likely nothing Loopup has that Gamma would covet in terms of intellectual property, the glittering prize to companies chasing growth is the solid core of prestige customers and history of providing a tip top service to them (customer loyalty which needs to be earned). The secondary and asset is the staff, again valuable, if we assume they are competent, Cisco, Meetings, Cloud and Microsoft experience. Finally the infrastructure, which they are building out (they spent £5m on equipment in 1 year to simply be able to offer the services and I suspect will have spent at least as much this year.
IMO Loopup in some respects represent a better investment option than the likes of Gamma because they are not priced to succeed and so have much more upside accompanied by more risk of course.
Gamma cam on radar as their sp has fallen off a cliff recently but only had a quick look.
2 questions spring to mind.
Why would a customer go with Loop over Gamma who offer a wider package?
What can loop offer gamma can not, ie is their any attraction for Gamma to offer to buy loop (licensed in 60 countries maybe? But no idea where Gamma are licensed.)
The cloud seat growth in Gamma looks relatively slow at 6% last 12 months?
Thanks JTD. I made the last point a while ago. Nov could see hostile approach. Perhaps that’s why the buyback is in the back pocket. If the Q3 is as planned and H1 was £1m+ EBITDA then with 2020 cash they could get the SP up
Has anyone, invested in or researched Gamma Coms (GAMA). They are AIM listed and also provide Could Telephony (including teams) as a part of their UCaaS, but have been in it for longer than Loopup.
They, have been busy expanding (buying companies) and partnering up to grow and now have a market cap of £1.851bn, P/E ration 28.5 with a turnover of £217m. In the last 5 years their SP has quadrupled to £20/share where Loopup has lost over 90% from its high.
What on Earth are our directors playing at to perform so badly, very disappointing.
However Gamma's success, including in the last year in the cloud comms market gives comfort that if our BoD pull their finger out there is huge potential.
Their statements about the market align with Loopups statements about growth, the difference is they are growing and Loopup still need to demonstrate they've turned the corner. If/when they do the SP has plenty of room the rise. This extract from chairman's statement.
"The COVID crisis has highlighted the importance of our products and services for end users. During the crisis they were able to carry on their business and many new customers have enjoyed the benefits of using a UCaaS product for the first time. As businesses move to new post-pandemic working practices, many are finding that a UCaaS solution will assist them with home-working or hybrid-working. We are seeing traffic volumes increase as the economy rebounds.
The PSTN switch off in 2025 is also a driver for businesses to move to a UCaaS solution - we estimate that 3m PSTN lines used by micro businesses will need to be migrated.
We are finding that businesses of all sizes are now embracing UCaaS and the pipelines for both our Direct business and our Channel Partners are strong. As our CEO describes below we now have a number of solutions for businesses of different sizes. This bodes well for our future growth."
IMO Loopup need to sign up some partners, preferably big ones, as yet none have been notified, interestingly Gamma bought one of their partners earlier this year for around £40m!!
I believe Loopup will themselves become very vulnerable to a takeover unless the SP pushes up soon - other operators will be most interested in the customer base and the cross selling opportunities.