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“Deadly Underwater International Security Threat Revealed — Turn $1,000 into $25,400 in just the next 6 to 12 months”

What's the tiny stock being teased by Penny Stock Millionaire?

I’ve got several teaser pitches percolating right now, but this one quickly rose to the top after a couple readers sent it to me this morning.

Why? Not because I’m all that excited about the stock (it shouldn’t be a public company, frankly), but because the promises of absurd returns are so specific and over-the-top that I felt compelled to look into the reasoning. Turning $1,000 into $25,400 in six to twelve months is absurd, even if you are talking about a penny stock that catches lightning in a bottle and creates something (like a gold mine or a cancer cure) out of nothing….

… usually, when newsletters talk about huge profits they either leave out the amount you have to invest, or they leave out the time period for that investment. But Alex Koyfman’s ad gave us the whole formula: Turn $1,000 into $25,400 in 6-12 months. That’s crazy enough to examine… and perhaps dangerous enough, for novice investors who might buy the hype without question, that I feel like we should offer some critique and perspective.

That would be a 2,440% return, by the way, for those who prefer percentages — or, if it happens in six months, an annualized 4,880% return. I’ve had only a few 1,000% returns that I can remember in 20 or so years of investing (and that’s the kind of thing you’re likely to remember), one took a decade or so (Google) and others were mostly luck-driven options speculations (Baidu during the first China mania, and an ad tech company that was bought by Microsoft many years ago come to mind).

There are, to be fair, 1,000% gainers over a relatively short time period among penny stocks, and they probably happen with some regularity (often because of stock promoters, but sometimes because businesses are real and grow)… but there are also 99% losses with some regularity (and in case you’re counting, recovering from a 99% loss requires a 9,900% gain). If you want to shoot for gains like that, probably best to keep your exposure small (in the “genuinely can afford to lose it all” category) and spread the money around to a bunch of different teensies to try to improve your odds of a big success that makes up for the inevitable flops.

So with that math out of the way, what’s the “secret” stock being teased? The ad is for Alex Koyfman’s Penny Stock Millionaire, which sells for $499/year (from Angel Publishing), and this is how he sums it up on the order form:

“This is one of the most guaranteed and lucrative tech plays out there today: under-sea drones.

“This company has already signed major contracts with U.S., Canadian, and other national defense contractors to supply the world’s most precise underwater sensors.

“But that’s just the start… Just a short time ago, it acquired a robotics company with the goal of taking over the emerging underwater drone industry.

“It stands to become the fastest-growing sub-sector of the defense industry since unmanned aircraft, and this company, still tiny, is competing with and beating some of the biggest giants in the game.

“As its technology gains more and more clients around the world, investors holding shares today could see gains of between 1,400% and 2,100%.

“And I’m not just predicting anymore… It’s already starting to happen.”

The “catch your attention with fear” bit at the beginning is focused on mini-submarines that are being used by Iran and by drug smugglers, and on the next wave of mines that could be used by extremists or enemies to block key shipping routes….

… and then goes on to explain the opportunity, which is based on the fact that current underwater threats are hard to see. Here’s some of the ad:

“What Does Any of This Have to Do With Making You Over $25,000 in the Next 6 to 12 Months?

“The key is this: These threats are incredibly difficult to see.

“Because they all lurk in a region of the Earth that we know surprisingly little about: the ocean.

“It’s actually quite astounding just how little of the Earth’s seas are explored compared with everything else.

“Most people don’t realize that we know more about the deep expanses of space (even galaxies and planets hundreds of thousands of light-years away) than we do our own oceans….

“Traditionally, we’ve only had radar, sonar, and infrared systems, which churn out choppy images….

“Because of this sheer lack of visibility, military and commercial vessels can’t tell the difference between a narco-sub and a whale or a Ghadir and a piece of wreckage.

“Most of the time, they can’t detect underwater IED mines at all.

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“Who Needs to See Underwater the Most?

“And How Much Are They Willing to Pay for the Best Technology?

“This is the question that barely any investors and traders out there are asking, and yet it’s the most pressing issue for two of the world’s biggest, most powerful industries…

“Military and oil.”

The comparison he gives is then to drones, with the implication that the skies full of unmanned drones for surveillance, military, or other applications is the precursor to an ocean full of drones (AUVs, or autonomous underwater vehicles)…. and that getting in on this young company would be like investing in early drone technology in the 1990s.

More from the ad:

“In a moment, I’m going to tell you about a young company that has been making BIG moves.

“This company has already developed underwater technology that produces visuals so shockingly clear and crisp that the two industries listed above are in a bidding war to put it to use first.

“That’s not all, though.

“This company has also just combined its current technology with something that is going to revolutionize underwater exploration and cause shares to soar for projected gains of 2,140% to 2,900% in just the next 12 months.

“This means anyone investing in shares now is likely going to see a massive ROI in a ridiculously short amount of time.

“Oh, and the best part?

“This company is the ONLY one doing this….

“It’s still so small, so overlooked by the investment community, that’s it’s actually not much larger than many tech startups.”

Koyfman also includes a bunch of images in the ad, comparing the conventional sonar images to the much sharper images (7X better definition) provided by his secret company’s technology, which is apparently called synthetic aperture sonar.

He also says that a big part of his excitement is due to the fact that this company just bought some robotics technology… here’s that bit of the tease:

“The Most Exciting Part: Who This Company Just Bought

“And the major endorsements and contracts it’s already attained

“You see, just a few months back, this company acquired one of the leading underwater robotics technology companies in the world, along with all its related intellectual property rights and physical assets.

“In other words — this world leader in underwater sensors now has a platform for turning those sensors into the world’s smartest, most sensitive, most lucrative underwater drones.

“Just like that, the underwater drone market has been cornered… and EVERYBODY wants a piece.

“The company has already been endorsed by the Canadian and U.S. navies, and it’s already exporting its deep-diving underwater vehicles to eight countries.

“Even more to the point:

“It’s just been awarded a $1.5 million order from a major defense contractor thanks to its patented synthetic aperture sonar that allows for unprecedented accuracy.

“That order, by the way, is equivalent to 10% of the company’s current market capitalization.”

Yes, you did the math right in your head just now — that means this is a company with a market capitalization of $15 million. It often trades less than $10,000 worth of shares in a day, which means that if ONE of you decided to buy a $5,000 position you would be likely to significantly change the share price. That’s why I’m publishing this after the close, though you can see that the stock has already popped up just because of the number of people who either subscribed to Koyfman’s newsletter or gumshoe’d it on their own — call me paternalistic, but I’d rather write about a stock like this when everyone can take their time to read about it and think before letting their itchy trigger finger scoot over to the “buy” button.

But I’ve put the cart before the horse again, no? I should tell you the answer first: This is the teensy tiny Canadian firm Kraken Sonar (PNG on the Venture exchange in Canada, KRKNF OTC/Grey Sheets in the US — US ticker has even less volume and probably terrible pricing, be careful).

The company they bought recently was Marine Robotics, which was announced back in November. I don’t know what they paid for the company, they haven’t reported their December quarter yet so it hasn’t hit their financials, and I haven’t read their SEDAR filings to see if there’s more detail available (that’s the Canadian equivalent of SEC filings).

And yes, they are a sonar company — they’ve been primarily developing and trying to sell their sensor and processing technology that can be used in a variety of AUVs or towed arrays and that has, they say, much more robust performance (higher frequency, much higher resolution images, etc.)

This is not a business with a lot of publicly traded “pure play” companies for comparison, but neither is it a business where Kraken is the only player — both underwater robotics and sonar/underwater imaging are markets addressed by major defense and oil service/engineering companies, with the overwhelming amount of focus in recent years being on the oil and gas market (monitoring and repairing subsea systems, mapping the ocean floor detail).

For the few large companies in the space any new defense/AUV business is growing far too slowly, if its growing at all, to make a dent in the utter collapse of their oil and gas business thanks to falling oil prices (the easiest example is Oceaneering (OII), which is down 60% in two years despite offering lots of subsea services to government to supplement their core oil and gas business).

And for the major defense companies this is clearly an area of some interest (Lockheed has mine-sensing drones as a part of their huge Littoral Combat Ship program, and Koyfman quotes this article about the failures of those drones, and General Dynamics just bought the underwater drone outfit Bluefin for an undisclosed price last month).

That means I have no idea what the opportunity is for this company, so we’ll rely on them to tell us what they think their opportunity is, and we’ll keep in mind that we should probably discount that prediction since it’s coming from the company itself.

There is no recent analysis of the opportunity or potential from the company since they acquired Marine Robotics, but presumably if Marine Robotics had any immediate sales prospects they wouldn’t have sold themselves… and we do have an investor relations presentation from last Summer to peruse here.

That presentation lays out the market opportunity that Kraken saw for themselves as their new products enter the marketplace — this is what they say about the status nine months ago:

“Customers include Lockheed Martin, Atlas Elektronik, DeepOcean, Fraunhofer along with several navies

“Kraken’s AquaPix® SAS sonar integrated with almost all AUV manufacturers

“Pursuing $50M+ of new business”

So it sounds like their AquaPix sonar has been used on several different kinds of underwater drones, and that’s been their major product so far. They say that the addressable size of that market in 2015 was $100 million, and that their market will grow when they introduce their “smart towfish” sensor this year (market size $250M) and their Modular AUV in 2017 (total market size $500M, which then grows to $750M in 2018 and $1B in 2019). I don’t know where they got those numbers, but presumably they know the market a lot better than I do.

I’d really like to see the full year financials for 2015 instead of just the first three quarters, to see if sales of AquaPix picked up at all, but the product has been available for at least a few years (they have quotes from folks who used it in 2014, and it was tested with good success by Canadian, US and Australian government entities in 2012-2013). For the first three quarters of 2015, revenues averaged about $500,000 a quarter and expenses averaged about $700,000 a quarter.

They’ve apparently brought on some engineers with their Marine Robotics acquisition, so perhaps they will have R&D expenses in future quarters — all that’s included now (in Ycharts, at least) are the selling, general and administrative expenses, which seems a little odd for a company that’s actively developing new products.

Most of their announced revenue seems to come from government or grant support (like $495,000 from Canada last month), which leads me to think that they may be a long way from achieving commercial scale… though they did announce a couple commercial contracts since July, $325,000 from ECA Robotics and a $1.5 million order for their Katfish towed sonar drone from a major defense contractor (most of that revenue probably wasn’t recognized last year).

Their AquaPix seems to be in use in at least test cases, and available for purchase, but I don’t see any real financial impact from it on the books yet. If the market opportunity is $100 million for them in 2015, as they say in their presentation, and most of their revenues are from actual product sales, then their market share is something in the neighborhood of 1%.

Which, of course, is probably why it’s a little $15 million company — this is still a startup that probably shouldn’t be subjecting itself to the public penny stock markets, in my opinion, and it certainly doesn’t seem like they’re in a position to release a big new product and manufacture hundreds of drones anytime soon, though I don’t know how long it would take to ramp up manufacturing in this business. I’d rather see these little companies be shepherded by VC firms that can drive their development with a longer time horizon (and not promise investors that they’ll rise 2,000% in six months), though if the product is unique and valuable (I can’t judge that at all) the far greater likelihood, I expect, is that someone in either marine, defense or engineering technology just buys them out to get the engineers and the AquaPix patents.

So… does that sound like the kind of microcap stock you’d like to invest in? The shares are around 23 cents now (Canadian), and have mostly been in the 15-26 cent range over the past year, relatively steady for such a small stock… which probably means it hasn’t been pitched by a newsletter before. New attention, if it proves to be sustained (I’ve only seen the ad this morning, so who knows whether Koyfman will really push the idea or not), can really have a big impact on microcaps like this — both positive and negative, because if a microcap gets sustained positive attention for a little while and drives the shares up just by virtue of the fact that 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 investors now follow the company and want to buy it, then just the absence of attention at some future point can cause a crash that appears to have no fundamental reason.

If it rose in value by 2,400%, (which I’ll bet it won’t do in the next year, of course — taking the “under” is always an easy bet in these situations), then it would grow to be roughly a $300 million company… assuming they don’t sell any shares along the way. Looks like an interesting business, they make some strong claims about their product being better than the competition, and they have minimal revenue so far, but they’re also a minnow swimming among giant sharks — what happens from here is beyond my guessing, but I’d be happy to listen if you want to share your opinions with a comment below.

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SoGiAm
March 9, 2016 4:14 pm

The Karaken? …That is an awful tasting Rhum IMHO 🙂
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XOMA Completes Divestiture Of Non-Core Assets >XOMA
XOMA Advancing Its Endocrine Portfolio >XOMA
Chick-Fil-A Plans to Source 100% Cage-Free Eggs Over Next 10 Years
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Sientra 4Q Loss/Shr $1.57 >SIEN
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Square Inc Sees FY Adjusted Rev $600 Million to $620 Million >SQ
Square Inc Sees FY Adjusted Ebitda $6 Million to $12 Million
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Square Q4 revenue $374.4 mln vs $250.9 mln
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American Eagle Outfitters: Boland Plans To Retire Effective April 1 >AEO
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*Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Reports Q4 GAAP EPS $0.46 vs $0.32 in Same Qtr. Last Year
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Pure Bioscience 2Q Loss/Shr 19c >PURE
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Pure Bioscience 2Q Loss $10.9M >PURE
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U.S. stocks finish higher as oil futures rebound
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Square Inc 4Q Gross Payment Volume Up 47% to $10.2 Billion >SQ
Dow Jones Best2ALL-Ben

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motorhead
motorhead
March 10, 2016 1:59 am
Reply to  SoGiAm

Sojiam,
Is this a comment or SPAM? Or did you just feel the urge to copy and paste some random BS?

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SoGiAm
March 10, 2016 8:06 am
Reply to  motorhead

motorhead, the post was a comment, however, I misspelled Kraken. You may, sir. want to consider reading and understanding: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/microblog-guidelines-for-new-members-posting-rules-and-etiquette/ and http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/first-steps-and-favorite-tools-for-new-investors/ Have a lovely day and beyond. Best2ALL!-Ben

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Alex Martelli
Guest
Alex Martelli
March 9, 2016 4:47 pm

You say “if all else is equal you’d need ten 1,000% gains to make up for one 99% loss in your portfolio” — wrong math: you appear to assume the gains and losses must be on the same stock, but “in your portfolio” contradicts that. Say your portfolio has only two stocks, $1,000 each to start: WINR, about to gain 1,000%, and LOSR, about to lose 99%. So at the start your portfolio’s worth $2,000. After the events, your WINR stock is worth $10,000 and your LOSR stock $10 — so your portfolio’s worth over $10,000. As you see, one single 1,000% gain far more than “makes up” for the 99% loss — in fact, it makes your portfolio a huge winner overall. In fact that is the motivation for investing in microcaps and IPOs — you don’t need a great batting average, all you need is a very few over-the-top winners and they’ll make up for all the losers and then some. Of course that doesn’t mean that such investing is smart, as there’s no sure-way to find those few super winners you need; odds are agains you, just like when you buy lottery tickets (but note that even in the latter case it’s very wrong to say that you need 10 jackpot-winning tickets to make up for one losing one — just the reverse, in fact… much like buying lottery tickets in the form of micro-caps:-).

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Dave
Dave
March 9, 2016 11:51 pm

Fwiw, it was clear to me the 1st go-round that you were referring to a single stock. Much ado about not much. 🙂

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backoffice
Irregular
July 31, 2016 9:46 pm

Momentarily you had me scared.

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G.Heroux
Guest
G.Heroux
March 30, 2017 7:12 am

M Johnson
One year later, following the development of Kraken Sonar, did you still have the same opinion of this company ??

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CuriousJoe
CuriousJoe
March 9, 2016 10:09 pm
Reply to  Alex Martelli

A 1000% gain on $1000 WINR would bring it up to $11,000, and the portfolio total to $11,010. No?

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arch1
March 10, 2016 12:16 am
Reply to  CuriousJoe

The IRS would see that as $9,010.00 gain and tax accordingly.

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stevemack70
March 9, 2016 4:50 pm

This is an area that will definitely grow. It’s the type of science that a small company can come up with something novel and profitable. Whether or not Kraken is that company remains to be seen. I look at this as a combination lottery ticket/ground floor opportunity. I might take a VERY small position and then watch for action beyond the possible “tease effect”.

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savethemanatee
savethemanatee
March 9, 2016 5:35 pm
Reply to  stevemack70

I agree with Steve above. I can think of a number of uses for this sort of technology and it’s an area where the first mover can experience large market gains. This requires a little more research, but (from the presentation Travis linked to) it seems as though the upper management is very experienced in this area and control most of the outstanding shares. I think Travis is right; this is essentially a start-up and it was probably preature for them to enter the public market…..but in today’s world, most of these sorts of companies are, as he points out, controlled by VC firms and aren’t available to common investors until years in the future, when they’ve had a history of success. Maybe a small position is warranted here–and by “small” I mean perhaps a quarter of one percent of my portfolio. Need to see if they own any patents and what the competition may be like in this space first….

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savethemanatee
savethemanatee
March 9, 2016 5:42 pm
Reply to  savethemanatee

Let me add, also, that my wife is a marine microbiologist who has conducted deep-sea research, and I’d like to ask for her opinion on the scientific use of this sort of technology, even though obviously the money here won’t be made by selling scientific gear.

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SoGiAm
March 9, 2016 5:51 pm
Reply to  savethemanatee

We are all ears savethemanate re: Kraken Sonar (PNG.V in Canada, KRKNF OTC/Grey Sheets in the US). Welcome to the Gummunity 🙂 To assist you in your investing journey and navigation skills on StockGumShoe, Travis created: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/first-steps-and-favorite-tools-for-new-investors/ Best2ALL-Ben

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Mark Pankin
Member
Mark Pankin
March 9, 2016 5:42 pm

You wrote “recovering from a 99% loss requires a 9,900% gain — so if all else is equal you’d need ten 1,000% gains to make up for one 99% loss in your portfolio).” This is correct only if you are investing the only amount left after the 99% loss. That is hardly realistic. More likely would be investing $100 in two stocks. If one falls by 99% that leaves $1. If the other one almost doubles going to $199, that is a 99% percent gain, and the net result is that you have broken even. I can’t believe that any of Gumshoe’s readers would put his or her entire investment portfolio into a single stock.

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Karl Svensson
Guest
Karl Svensson
March 10, 2016 2:28 am

I’ve rescued and also liquidated a few companies over the years and what may smell fishy to an outsider is often pretty straightforward. If the company is sure to fail then after settling debts as fairly and honestly as possible it’s often the case that there’s, “The Good Bits” to be resurrected hopefully into a profitable business and hopefully save some jobs and livelihoods. I’m not commenting on this individual scenario but often from a failed company a successful company can be spun off and possibly to the benefit of original suppliers too if it doesn’t get too nasty. Let’s see if The Kraken Wakes.

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savethemanatee
savethemanatee
March 10, 2016 10:47 am
Reply to  Karl Svensson

Hello, Karl–Yes, certainly. And this is a fascinating product that appears to be an advancement over those of its competitors (such as L-3 Klein, which appears to be the market leader for underwater sonar mapping sensors, as far as I can tell after an hour or two of poking around) , and has made some significant sales in a number of countries. This may be a success.

However….from an investment standpoint, this strikes me as overly dangerous. What is the guarantee that Kraken won’t use the next three years to perfect the technology and gain market share, then, once the business is profitable, transfer (once again) the “good” IP to a private entity for pennies on the dollar and subsequently declare bankruptcy? Regardless of whether this is a good product with a bright future, the management has given no reason to trust them. Ultimately an investment in a company, esp. a tiny one with ten employees, is an investment in the people that run it. This may, in fact, be why they are a public company–maybe no VC firm would touch them because of this history.

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-osgo-
March 10, 2016 11:45 am

Fidelity is adding on a $50 fee since it’s a Canuk stock? Local broker fee? I will hang it out and literally splay my cash into the wind sometimes..but this one is a wee bit too speculative for even…me.

If it’s a decent piece of kit, I think I’ll wait till it reaches at least a buck and plan my ever expanding 11,000% gains retirement in FrolicNaked, Micronesia….accordingly.

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SoGiAm
March 10, 2016 12:03 pm
Reply to  -osgo-

-osgo-, may I suggest looking into https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php for future reference. Many in the Gummunity are pleased with their service, including me. Best2You-Ben

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Malcolm Jensen
Guest
Malcolm Jensen
March 10, 2016 12:41 pm
Reply to  -osgo-

Fidelity is not adding a $50 fee. You’ll pay that with any broker. Please be careful not to inappropriately damage the reputation of any person or business. Fidelity is just great and has been very helpful to me for several years.

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O.J.Aspen
Member
March 10, 2016 12:39 pm

S eems maybe You could Earn Some quick bucks buying around 20 cents and smelling at 30 cents? The salesnumbers seem a litt le too akward at The moment.My F avourite Pennystock is UBIQ at moment.I Bought it at 0.01 cent.Today it was 0.42 cents.They are a Restructure case with a Fantastic technology appealing to the Australian Government,and moneyfunds are starting to take interest.Good investing to all you Stock Gumshoe lovers out there.O.J.Aspen

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SoGiAm
March 10, 2016 12:45 pm
Reply to  O.J.Aspen

$UBIQ- teaser theis a.m. : March 10, 2016 at 9:42 am http://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/macro-trader/crash-the-euro-and-profit-with-a-5-letter-code/comment-page-1/#comment-4728135

UBIQ- Rate cut in Europe looks strong for stocks but UBIQ was doing just FINE on its own . . . and now the company has NEWS to heat up its party!
The last big headline from this area of the company took UBIQ from $0.16 on the 180% winning road to $0.46.
This time, with the chart ALREADY in racing gear, I’m wondering where the added burst of buzz will do send the price action:… at vertical circle is the last major burst of news UBIQ released. Look at the volume spike the headline unleashed — 3-digit buying frenzy!

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Blind Guide
Member
Blind Guide
March 10, 2016 3:54 pm

Looks like things have calmed back down a bit today for UBIQ!
Anyone willing to suggest a buy-in price?
Of interest:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-traders-headed-analyst-notes-132000744.html

Thomas
Thomas
March 10, 2016 7:48 pm
Reply to  Blind Guide

>20cents after traders sell all their shares back. Its been pumped the last 2 days.

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copacetic98
March 10, 2016 9:44 pm

Kraken recently sold a KATFISH sonar system to Elbit, the Israeli defense technology company. Elbit is a serious player, so I believe this says something positive about Kraken. A nice description of the application of the technology can be found at
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/kraken-supply-sonar-system-major-113000556.html
This is probably the deal announced in Travis’ link in the article, which was an earlier announcement in which, “… due to the sensitivity of its business, the client’s name cannot be disclosed”. Anyways, it looks real to me.

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Murray
Murray
March 13, 2016 8:37 am

Kraken volume has picked up enormously this past week and I picked up 5000 shares without making a dent in the price. I agree that this company does have potential for big growth but at this point I would keep my investment small because you never know with a tiny company.

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arch1
March 13, 2016 9:20 am

I feel there is great potential in robotics in general, this drone being just one example. This may well prove to be an investment chance but probably the applications are limited. That does not mean that there is no profit potential here.
For the nonce I am not buying in.

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Charlie
Guest
Charlie
March 13, 2016 11:42 am

As an amateur investor I will not speak to the potential value of this stock. As an engineer retired from the Navy submarine force I can speak to some technical issues. Your readers should know that autonomous submarines are not new. They have been in use for decades. As with robotics in general it is not a mature technology. There is enormous future potential. There are several players in the field. I don’t see any patents held by Kraken that make their technology unique. I don’t know, but given the Israeli expertise I can’t help but suspect that they purchased the product so that they could determine the capabilities of the competition. The synthetic aperture sonar has been around for more than ten years. It is not at all unique to autonomous submarines or even to submarines. What really motivated me to respond was the line “military and commercial vessels can’t tell the difference between a narco-sub and a whale or a Ghadir and a piece of wreckage.” This is just plain wrong. The U.S. Navy can certainly tell the difference. Nobody should elaborate further. My gut feeling is that if you have to promote a stock with hyperbole and misinformation then there is likely no known fundamental verifiable reason to value the stock.

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arch1
March 13, 2016 2:25 pm
Reply to  Charlie

Charlie your comment is worth volumes. I hope to hear from you again.
frank

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Ted
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Ted
March 13, 2016 5:56 pm

Synthetic Aperture Sonar is a useful technology but the quoted advertisement blows out of proportion both the technology itself and Kraken’s role in its development. This is not a story of “little company stumbles on incredible new technology,” rather, “little company, with the help of some big bucks from the Canadian government, combines the talents of a good electrical engineer with a researcher from a NATO funded institution to make a commercially viable version of a technology that’s been around for decades.” A couple facts about the technology:

1. Synthetic aperture processing, as a concept, is actively applied in radar and has been around for over half a century.

2. The sonar version has also existed several decades as well, but tends to be unreliable in practice. It has lots of drawbacks compared to ordinary sidescan systems made by the likes of edge tech and L3Klein, from a durability standpoint.

3. Kraken doesn’t even have the best version. Kongsberg has a system called the HiSAS 1030 that can be mounted on their HUGIN AUV that has longer range, and has more mature software. It has, for example, already demonstrated the ability to automatically track pipes over very long distances.

4. The best thing Kraken brings to the game is that it has scaled the technology to a level that it is commercially viable. And, it has a CEO that is pretty good at marketing.

As to whether or not it is a good investment, I can’t say. Kraken has certainly done something good for the technology itself (exposure & making a commercially viable product).

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digitriper
Irregular
digitriper
March 14, 2016 11:06 am

A couple of things on this – first, the US has treaties in place that prevent the weaponization of unmanned submersibles. Second, an advanced persistent surveillance underwater ROV has been developed by University of California San Diego. I would stay away from this one

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sproy
sproy
July 28, 2016 11:26 am

KRAKEN ANNOUNCES PRIVATE PLACEMENT AND PROVIDES BUSINESS UPDATE

ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND – JULY 19, 2016— Kraken Sonar Inc. (TSX-V: PNG) (“Kraken” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it is undertaking a non-brokered private placement offering for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CDN$1 million (the “Offering”) and is also pleased to provide an update regarding the business and operations of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kraken Sonar Systems Inc.

FINANCING

Pursuant to the Offering, the Company will issue an aggregate of up to 6,666,667 units (the “Units”) at a price of $0.15 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CDN$1 million. Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (each, a “Share”) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each full warrant, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Share at a price of CDN$0.30 for a period of two years from closing of the Offering. The securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period in accordance with applicable securities legislation.

Greg Reid, CFO of Kraken stated, “This $1 million financing, along with announced contract revenue and recent grant funding, provides the Company with the required working capital to deliver our first KATFISH™ in Q4/2016 and advance a number of ongoing sales opportunities and strategic discussions in both the military and commercial end markets.”

The Offering is being made available to accredited investors, and existing shareholders of the Company, who, at the close of business on July 18, 2016 (the “Record Date”), held common shares of the Company (and who continue to hold common shares of the Company at the time of closing of the offering), pursuant to the existing security holder exemption (the “Existing Security Holder Exemption”), as well as to other investors pursuant to other available exemptions. In accordance with the Existing Security Holder Exemption (currently not available in Newfoundland and Labrador), the Company confirms there is no material fact or material change related to the Company which has not been generally disclosed. Any existing shareholder interested in participating in the offering should contact the Company.

The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about August 4, 2016 and remains subject to certain closing conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the completion of required regulatory filings with the TSX Venture Exchange. The Offering is subject to a minimum subscription amount of $5,000. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for general corporate and working capital purposes. Cash Finders’ fees in the amount of 7.0% may be paid in connection with certain subscriptions under the private placement.

BUSINESS UPDATE

Karl Kenny, President and CEO of the Company stated, “During the first 6 months of 2016 the Kraken team continued to successfully build on our sensors-to-systems strategy with the objective of becoming a leader in the Unmanned Maritime Systems industry. As we enter Q3/2016, our resources are focused on delivering on our existing contract with Elbit Systems Ltd. for our KATFISH™ intelligent towed sonar system, as well as contracts for AquaPix® sonar sensors with leading customers such as Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and others. Our recently announced relationship with Square Robot Inc. is moving forward as expected; and we are working towards signing a contract with a major defense contractor for the development of an advanced underwater robotic drone.”

KATFISH™

In mid-June, Kraken completed a successful engineering design review of the production KATFISH-180 vehicle. This review highlights achievement of several key milestones, including:

Hydrodynamic modeling and simulation of the KATFISH vehicle
Integration of SQX-500 codebase with the KATFISH software stack.
At-sea testing of the KATFISH sensor payloads
The hydrodynamic modeling and simulation of the KATFISH vehicle has been reviewed and accepted. This performance prediction model not only serves as an input into the KATFISH intelligent control system, but also serves as a valuable prediction tool in a full-range of sea states, reducing at-sea testing risk and saving valuable ship time.

Kraken has completed integration of the KATFISH sensor suite with the KATFISH software stack. Leveraging the underwater robotic intellectual property acquired from Marine Robotics, Kraken’s KATFISH software stack is a modular architecture, scalable to a variety of vehicle platforms and configurations. Recent improvements to the core software has allowed for significantly faster response times and increased overall performance.

These milestones represent critical points in the KATFISH project and Kraken management is pleased that the KATFISH remains on schedule for delivery in 2016.

AQUAPIX® MINSAS

In July 2016, Kraken successfully completed sonar support trials in Germany for the Fraunhofer Institute’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (“AUV”) program. The Fraunhofer Institute is the leading organization for applied research in Europe. Under the terms of the contract, Kraken designed, engineered and delivered a 6,000m depth rated AquaPix® MINSAS sonar system that is integrated into Fraunhofer’s AUV. CNN recently profiled the Fraunhofer AUV on CNN Money. The video can be viewed at:

http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2016/06/20/mci—dedave.cnnmoney/

Additionally, Kraken recently completed a successful Critical Design Review with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (“WHOI”) after earlier this year being awarded a CDN$600,000 contract by WHOI for a 6,000m deep-sea rated AquaPix® MINSAS sonar, a Real Time Embedded SAS Signal Processor and related engineering services. Delivery of the system is scheduled for August 2016.

SQUARE ROBOT INC.

In June 2016, Kraken announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Square Robot Inc. (“SRI”) of Boston, Massachusetts. This agreement will see Kraken design, manufacture and support advanced sensors and robotic systems for confined area inspection applications used by the worldwide oil and gas industry. Kraken and SRI are working diligently on the design of innovative robotic devices that will use advanced acoustic, optical and laser sensors. Under this agreement and within the next 30 – 45 days, Kraken expects to be awarded an initial contract to play a significant role in delivering sensors and major software components as part of a US$2-$3 million development program. As part of a 5-year collaboration agreement, Kraken could see an additional US$5M in revenue for manufacturing support. Kraken will be the exclusive manufacturing and product support partner to SRI and expects to work with SRI on the development of additional robotic systems for other inspection applications. Kraken anticipates average selling prices to be in the range of US$400,000 – US$500,000 for the initial SRI application with a forecast of approximately 70 units over the first five years of SRI’s service offering.

UNDERWATER ROBOTICS

The underwater robotics market is at an inflection point and the Company believes the industry is set for major growth. Military and commercial operators are now significantly investing in this technology as the cost utilization of drones is much less than conventional manned platforms. Kraken continues to invest in underwater robotics, sensor technology and handling systems. During the second half of 2016, the Company is aiming to enter into a contract with an international defence contractor for the development of an advanced underwater robotic drone that is code-named ThunderFish™. Depending on the sensor payload configuration, Kraken expects the ThunderFish™ drone to be priced in the range of US$3 million.

Kraken also expects to see significant growth in the deepwater oil and gas industry. As the early shallow-water fields are depleting, operating companies are moving to deeper water (>500m), where large discoveries can still be made. Deepwater production is forecast to rise from 10% of global oil production in 2013 to nearly 20% by 2025, as the development of deepwater reserves has become vital. There is also a trend towards exploration in ultra-deepwater (depths greater than 2000m).

A drive to maximize production from aging assets is also underway, involving large-scale modifications to boost end-of-life production. This trend has led to the emergence of a busy inspection and maintenance market, in which revenue opportunities have grown steadily. With non-productive time and delays prohibitively costly for operators, the outlook for high-quality subsea inspection, repair, and maintenance is very positive.

Subsea developments will continue to account for an increasing share of global offshore activity and the sector has become a sizable opportunity for underwater robotics technologies.Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (“AUV”) are increasingly being used for deepwater surveys and are expected to be deployed for subsea inspection tasks. Technological advancements are being developed for riser, pipeline, sea line and life of field inspection. AUVs are commercially proven in pipeline inspection markets, while developments in other areas are progressing. With the growing infrastructure and subsea pipeline network, AUVs are expected to gain market share.

ABOUT KRAKEN SONAR INC.

Kraken Sonar Inc. (TSX.V:PNG) is the parent of Kraken Sonar Systems Inc. (“KSSI”), an industrial technology company, founded in 2012, that is dedicated to the production and sale of Synthetic Aperture Sonar, sensors and underwater robotics. The Company’s products are sold to leading defence contractors, commercial survey companies and research institutions for producing real-time, ultra-high resolution imagery and bathymetry of the seabed. For more information, please visit http://www.krakensonar.com.

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, the words “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “seek”, “propose”, “estimate”, “expect”, and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, business objectives, expected growth, results of operations, performance, business projects and opportunities and financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events based on certain material factors and assumptions and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, changes in market, competition, governmental or regulatory developments, general economic conditions and other factors set out in the Company’s public disclosure documents. Many factors could cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this news release, including without limitation those listed above. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this news release and such forward-looking statements included in, or incorporated by reference in this news release, should not be unduly relied upon. Such statements speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provide (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact:

Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations
(416) 565-2805
sean@sophiccapital.com
Greg Reid, Chief Financial Officer
(416) 818-9822
greid@krakensonar.com
Glenda Leyte, Marketing Manager
(709) 757-5757 extension 288
gleyte@krakensonar.com

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Justin brooks
Guest
Justin brooks
January 9, 2021 6:11 am

Hey Travis (And others),….

Some of these smaller micro teases are built on the premise of what could be, vs. what is. I think 2021 becomes what is for Kraken (KRKNF). Its time…..

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Harold Burton
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Harold Burton
July 30, 2021 9:51 am

Hey…whenever i type anything to perform the tricks the button i am feeling lucky vanishes? How do i perform the tricks?

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