Beginner in need of some advice. As my first real form of investment I bought into Forbidden Technology. After the IBC 2003 the share price shot up. Any thoughts on the future of this stock?

Shares Magazine has an article about FBT this week(page 7)

I did read somewhere that FBT have been getting rave reviews at some exhibition in Amsterdam apparently.

They also gave FBT a "buy" recommendation, at 63p.


FBT website : www.forbidden.co.uk.

The major problem with FBT is that it is valued at about 15 times its net asset value and has almist no revenue. The fires for the last three full years are

600
3,000
9,000

The quality of its system is quite poor, you cannot resize the playing picture and it does not support the standards the large users of streaming want (mpeg-4). The player can only handle fairly static subjects whcih is why most their demos are talking heads with a minimum of colours. There are dozens of companies that are doing similar things here and in the US. They seem doomed to operate in niche markets with customers who cannot afford the real thing, hence their poor turnover.

From what I understood talking heads were one of the most diffucult things to perfect, the system runs off java, which means no pesky downloads, the possibilities for the internet alone are limitless, add mobile phones to this and their potential market just got a whole lot bigger. What other companies are similar devoloping software? & are they are as far advanced as Forbidden Tech?
Is this stock a long term investment or get out while the going is good? any thoughts?

The competitors have been doing the same thing for several years and have got nowhere much with the system. The player, which replaces the plug-in, has to be downloaded every time and is on the front of the video stream. One of the reasons that the shares are so high is that they are very lighly traded. This partly due to the fact that one person own more than 85% of the company. The talking heads are not close ups whcich are difficult, but slightly more than head and shoulders. This gives very little movement. The subjects sit very still to make it even easier. The half year results are due more or less now. They were 19 Sept last year. The price has dropped after every set of results so far (half and full year).

Thanks very much for the advice. Is Steven Streater the person who owns 85% of the stock? It seems obvious that I should sell before the results are released, but something tells me I should buy the stock back at a later date, as once their technology is perfected the stock price is going to rocket.
Why were they given a buy rating at "62p" by Share magazine

Haystack,

I checked out the demos on their website yestaerday, and whilst they were clearly better than previous ones I have seen, I have to agree they are still short of the the sort of quality required to be a commercial success.

The demos I watched were of crowd scenes, as opposed to talking heads, so they are getting there, albeit probably slower than they expected.

Shares said they have "enough cash for 4 years" so time is at least on their side, and no chance of cash calls and dilution at least!

I am suprised at their "buy" recommendation, I would have thought speculative buy at best.

debuwebu
It was NOT advice. I NEVER give advice. Always do your own research and don't believe anyone on BBs. I have no idea if FBT will go up or down as it is a volatile stock. It is not a stock that I have ever traded and it is unlikely that I ever would. I think it has the potential to crash down to be a penny stock at around 3p, but that is my personal opinion.

advice was perhaps the wrong word, a fresh perspective would have perhaps been better. Albeit my research & that of my collegues indicate good things are going to happen for this company, although it is most certainly a long term investment. I have a very strong feeling that the stock price is going to drop after the half year results on Tuesday as it has previously done, but with all the things this company has in the pipeline it is certainly one to be watching.

I think the problem with it has to be the difficult of making money in its chosen market. The big players are not going to touch it as they are already committed to mpeg-4 and its successors. This leaves niche markets which are mainly people who want to do streaming on the cheap.

I took a look at one of the one minute tours on the web site of one of their customers. It was of Barbados. I was watching with my screen set to 1024x767 which is my normal screen size. The streaming viewing area was 9/10ths inches by 6/10ths inches or approx 2/25cm by 1.5cm. I have stamps in my wallet that are bigger than that. It was the funniest thing I have seen for a long time. Who on earth is going to pay good money for that.

Try it you won't believe it: -

http://www.holidaynet.com/videos/traveltv/oneminute/barbados-lo/ttv_nb.html

You're right Haystack, it's pretty comical. Hands up anyone who can read the title in the final frame :-)

You can't even read it at 640x480 resolution. It is still postage stamp size.

This company has a market cap. of 46M and about 2.4M net asset value and almost no turnover (mind you the tiny turnover is not suprising)

just called in to ramp zoo digital who have just signed another deal with Universal pictures. Their dvd authoring system has been chosen to run the Who wants to be a millionaire dvd game about a month ago and have again signed a license deal and royalties for Interactive Championship Challenge, these are the first of a long list of games to be signed up before xmas because they developed the authoring system and just have to wait for the deals to roll in and consequently, after this, all the royalties. I'm getting a bit bored talking to myself on the zoo bb so could someone please spot the potential in these and increase the audience. Just have a look at the recent share price graph. Today has seen another nice rise with all past rises building support all the way with very little backsliding between announcements.

The thing with this company is that it is a long term investment. I have been following it for about 6 months, and admittedly after the IBC my shares nearly doubled, I sold around half of my shares and am now playing with profits.
I have seen the video systems get better every week, and as Forbbiden have promised a 2% improvement every week I think they are living up to that challenge.
As above you can see that they have a 46m pound market capital with a very low burn rate, so one positive aspect here, is that time is on their side.
The word on the street is that more companies ARE starting to look at Forbidden Technology as it needs no plug ins and by passes any firewalls, making it ideal for advertising, homepages, etc, although at present - SIZE does matter!!!!!. Only time will tell what it's niche market is. Is it doomed for small time or will the techonology keep improving and make this company a player?
I expect to hear some good things coming from this company, every announcement only pushes the stock price up. One big announcement could rocket this stock.
I for one am keeping what money I have left in this stock.
Will I regret selling my stock before for a misely 90% profit?
Will this stock rocket or are you guys correct MPEG 4 is the only way to go?

I have faith in this company as IDOS shot up from 60p a share to 60 pounds. perhaps Steven Streater can do it again?

Only time will tell. As always DYOR

To all forbidden tech holders
Goodluck

Mon 13th Oct, 2003
Travel Media Solutions
Travel Media Solutions has entered into an agreement with Indecorp Corporation, a world-wide hotel group, to use Forbiddens technology to enable customers to view video footage of hotels and resorts on their home or work computer.

Here is one of the announcements, lets hope for more!!!

debuwebu

You posted this above: -
"As above you can see that they have a 46m pound market capital with a very low burn rate, so one positive aspect here, is that time is on their side."

I think you misunderstand what market cap. is. It is just the number of shares in issue times the price of each share. That comes to 46m. Thta is the total worth of all the shares. It is a valuation of the company if you like by the market, right or wrong.

Thye actually have 2.6M in money left, this is their net asset value. The 2,6M is the cash that has to last. The markey cap. varies day to day as the shares go up and down.

You also posted this: -

"and as Forbbiden have promised a 2% improvement every week I think they are living up to that challenge."

Thye said that a few years ago now. DO you have any idea how much better their video pictures would have to be at an improvement of 2% a week for three years. It is only marginally better than it was three years ago.

Haystack,
Thanks for the correction.
as said before I am only playing with profits now, I understand that this stock is a voilatile one, but I do feel it is one worth holding on to.