Member Info for Nanonano

That's Nanoco for you, I'm afraid.

Some hopes...

Not overly optimistic on any Merck agreement. What have they done in the four years since they signed up with Nanoco?

If every smart phone incorporated a sensor with Nanoco QD's in, and they received a penny for every sensor, it would account for around £15m per year in revenue. However if the tech is widely adopted I think most phones will use more than one QD enhanced infra red sensor, plus smart watches then of course there is the possibility of QD's being incorporated into phone displays.

A few things to remember to temper any great expectations.

At present Nanoco need about £400k a month to tick over, that's with a significant amount of staff furlouged. From August 20% of those furloughed staff will have to be paid for by the company, then the scheme is scheduled to end altogether by October. The normal cost of keeping the company going is £700k per month.

So between now and August, Nanoco are going to need to either ink some contracts worth at least £2-3m , or cash raise, or restructure to have themselves signed off for the following financial year

You do need to sell a lot of dots to bring in that kind of revenue, and I think only display is going to achieve that in the mid term. So before I get excited I want to see a screen or two with Nanoco dots in it, or they need a good deal with Samsung, which would certainly secure their future for some years.

Neither Merck or Wah Hong have exactly painted it black since they partnered with Nanoco in 2016. I'm hoping for better things from STMicro, although serious revenue is probably at least eighteen months to two years away. Need something else.

Should have been getting a response from Samsung by next Tuesday, but it's been extended to August hasn't it?

How are they doing that then- holding shareholders to ransom, forcing people to relinquish their stock? Bound to be a bit of a pullback after yesterdays rise. Some will prefer to lock in a 50% + profit rather than risk seeing it evaporate.

Something I find curious is how Samsung will continue with its QLED LCD line after this year.

Many parts of the tech press have reported this poorly, insinuating that Samsung are abandoning LCD screens in favour of QDOLED and microLED, but nothing could be further from the truth.

They are simply divesting in house production of LCD, instead buying in screens from Chinese owned TCL (whom Samsung hold a large stake in) and Sharp, which will be more cost effective. Will Samsung be supplying these companies with QD dots or film I wonder?

No, but don't think they'll be too bothered that StMicro will be using Nanoco's dots....hopefully.

Samsung and STmicro have been working together for years. You'll find dozens of their chip designs in every Samsung phone.

Seems as if Samsung are going to leave it to last knockings before they explain themselves.......if they ever do.

Your guess would be as good as anyone.

Both emitter and receptor can probably be enhanced with QD. I think it's mainly about improving their performance in bright sunlight.

They are a big French-Italian company operating plants all over the world. Also worlds leading supplier of time of flight sensors and huge supplier of IOT sensors. TOF and many other sensors operate in he infra red spectrum, and performance needs to improve and cost lowered for use in automotive and machine based sensing.

ST micro also work very closely with Apple. Most smart phones will have one or more ST micro chips inside.

Looks like they're scouting for a Quantum dot lab manager-

https://stcareers.talent-soft.com/job/job-quantum-dot-lab-manager-m-f_5218.aspx

I rather suspect that Nanoco have made attempts to negotiate with Samsung, and have no doubt been given the bums rush.

Just refer to other cases involving the big S to see the stunts they pull. Doubtful they'd agree to a payment even at these late stages. Only a ban on the US sales of their sets may concentrate minds IMO.

Any out of court settlement would have to be include a license for future production, especially as the QD OLED screens will use significantly more dots, and are projected to account for about half the growth in QD materials in display through to 2025.

If they can get the injunction to prevent sales, that would really squeeze Samsung's knackers.

I am looking closely for where money is going to come from to keep the company going beyond Q2 2021. Hopefully the deals with ST micro will bear fruit, but money from there will not start to really come in until 2022 at the earliest, and that's assuming everything goes well.

When it comes to the patent infringements, you only have to look at the background behind the Samsung versus Kaist lawsuit to see that the likelihood is that Samsung will wring this out even if it costs them dearly. Is this a pride versus good business issue I wonder? Kaist said originally they requested $10m from Samsung for licensing FinFET, and they repeatedly refused. The court awarded Kaist $400m, although I believe a settlement of roughly half that was made. Has a penny of this been paid four years after the the case was brought? Samsung have continued to produce products with the technology in during this time.

Edison have given an update, valuing a payment in the region $200-250 million. However they've based that on the royalties from Dow under the renegotiated deal made when Nanoco went non-exclusive with Dow, forced upon them by the loss of the Samsung business back in 2015, so I think any payouts should be based on the original payment model at the very least.