Message to Shareholders from the CEO

If they were inclined to dilute for the hell of it, we would have had this request long ago.... 

I'm for this. It gives them options to deal with threats, embrace opportunities, enter into strategic partnerships, or simply reward shareholders. (I think a forward split during a good run, with good publicity would be a gift to shareholders.) 



May 18, 2018

Dear Fellow MicroVision Stockholder,

With a little more than six months as CEO of your Company behind me, I am convinced that we are now moving in a direction that will pave the way to achieving profitability at some point during 2019. As we discussed on our May 9 conference call with the investment community, we are on track with our plans, including:

• The recently announced license agreement for display-only products with a leading global technology company that includes the payment of $10 million in license fees this year and provides MicroVision with additional payments for nonrecurring engineering expenses as well as other expected benefits.
• The achievement of key milestones for the $24 million contract we signed in April 2017 with a Tier 1 technology company.
• We made samples of our new MEMS scanner and our new time-of-flight ASIC available for customers’ evaluation.
• Our next-generation analog ASIC has been taped out and we made significant progress on our next-generation digital ASIC.

We believe the markets we are targeting have exceptional growth potential. We also believe our technology and the underlying ability to deliver has never been better and with a very customer focused value-driven concentration of effort, we are positioned to increase shareholder value, but we need your help.

Your Vote is Important to MicroVision’s Success

It is important that you vote your shares at the upcoming 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders in favor of each of the proposals, particularly Proposal 3 relating to an increase in our authorized shares. Please note that the approval to increase the number of authorized shares does not mean the shares will be issued, only that they are available if needed. The shares will provide us with the capital flexibility we need as we continue to execute on our strategic plan. Also, it is important to note Proposal 3 requires approval by the holders of a majority of our outstanding common stock, not voting is the same as a vote against the proposal. Your vote is extremely important regardless of the number of shares you own.

While our Board of Directors (the “Board”) unanimously recommended that you vote FOR each of the seven Board nominees and FOR each of the proposals, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight Proposal 3 and discuss why the Board has determined that the proposal is in your best interest.

Proposal 3 asks you to approve an amendment to our charter to increase the authorized number of shares of the Company’s common stock by 50,000,000 to a total of 150,000,000 shares. This proposal benefits our stockholders in the following ways:

• Provides Shares for Future Financings: Without an increase in the number of authorized shares, we expect that the Company will be limited in its ability to raise needed capital in the future. Currently we have approximately 14 million shares of common stock available for issuance. The Company expects to need additional capital to fund its business. If we do not have shares of common stock available to issue, we would be severely restricted in our ability to raise additional funds needed for our continued operations. While the Board is sensitive to the dilution that results from issuing additional shares of common stock and will continue to weigh that concern, it believes the stockholders will be best served by the Company having shares of common stock available for financings or other transactions that it determines are worth pursuing.

• Provides Flexibility: The Board would like to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock to provide the Company with flexibility to issue shares of common stock for general corporate purposes, which could include, among other uses, financings, as discussed above, as well as for strategic partnering arrangements, equity incentive plans, acquisitions of assets or businesses, stock splits or stock dividends. The availability of additional authorized shares of common stock would allow the Company to accomplish these goals, and other business and financial objectives, in the future without the delay needed for authorizing shares for those purposes at the time. Increasing the number of authorized shares at this time does not mean we have current plans to issue these shares, only that they are available if needed by the company.

• A Leading Independent Proxy Advisory Firm Recommends Approval of Proposal 3. Glass Lewis & Co., a leading institutional proxy advisory firm, recommends voting for Proposal 3 and concludes that is prudent for the Company to have additional common shares available for issuance and the request to increase the authorized common shares is “reasonable.”

Spectrum & CC

Henry James Okay. Okay. And then one last question. I think -- or at least I've read or heard that you guys have at least a sort of display product for project and sense at the same time. I don't know if you can tell us anything about that.

Perry M. Mulligan - MicroVision, Inc. - CEO & Director

That is our interactive display, Henry.

So think of the scenario -- and when we talk about the I/O for AI, I'm not trying to be cute with acronyms. But if you think of being in the home environment and we talk about a suite of solutions,

think of our display engine embedded in your voice-only device. So that as you shave in the morning not only do you listen to the news, you see it displayed on the washroom wall, and that becomes a little bit more meaningful experience. 

As you walk down the hall towards the kitchen, our sensing device knows it's you that's walking down the hall. It adjusts the coffee and turns the lights on appropriately. 

And then an interactive display that's invisible, but when you call it up, it comes out as an Alexa-type device or something of that nature that allows you to interact with it because of the sensing capabilities, gesture recognition and then disappears when it's not required. 

So we really see this as sort of a suite of solution that helps AI platforms with their user interface.

Conference call Announced.

A couple of interesting things on the banner, and a new time.

I attribute no meaning at all to the new time, except new management with new preferences.

I'll welcome not being up at O500 for the call.

Link to Page

MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS) is a pioneer in laser beam scanning (LBS) technology that we market under our brand name PicoP®. Founded in 1993 and based in Redmond, WA, we have developed our proprietary PicoP® scanning technology that can be adopted by our customers to create high-resolution miniature projection and three-dimensional sensing and image capture solutions. Our PicoP scanning technology incorporates our patented expertise in two-dimensional Micro-Electrical Mechanical Systems (MEMS), lasers, optics, and electronics to create a small form factor scanning engine with lower power needs than many other technologies that projects high-quality video and still image and/or uses depth sensing to capture three-dimensional data.

Our business strategy is to commercialize our PicoP® scanning technology by enabling ODMs and OEMs to produce scanning engines by licensing our technology. We also sell key scanning engine components to licensees, as needed. ODMs and OEMs can integrate and embed our technology across a broad range of display and image capture product applications. We create product concept reference designs to enable ODMs and OEMs to develop and rapidly build products that capitalize on the benefits of our PicoP scanning technology. We are also developing value-added applications intended to help our customers differentiate their potential products.

We have an extensive patent portfolio that we believe is the largest, broadest, and earliest filed LBS technology portfolio and includes applications such as automotive HUD, augmented reality, range finding, portable media devices, image capture, and projection applications. We have over 500 issued patents, pending patents and licensed patents worldwide.

order of multitude increase in market cap...?

Proactive Investors

MicroVision Inc.’s (NASDAQ:MVIS) latest demonstration of its laser-projection systems at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas put the company’s best foot forward in the eyes of an H.C. Wainright & Co. analyst.

“Some might argue attaining a measure of commercial success with projection interactivity could drive the company to an order of multitude increase in market cap, and we suggest that enabling interactivity in projection has significant import in everyday applications, such as supplementing voice-activated commands with touch-enabled projection interaction in smart home systems,” Kevin Dede wrote in a research note Monday.

The note also touted the potential impact of new and improved real-time digital 3D rendering using the company’s new PSE-0400li3-101 sensing engine.

“This year's demonstration was remarkably advanced,” Dede wrote, though he also acknowledged that the “exact application isn't immediately clear to us, but is less important than the direct customer relationship and the ability to meet requested specifications.”

These innovations, however, build on the foundation of the maker of ultra-miniature projection displays’ established proficiency in laser-based projection, Dede wrote, as interactivity remains the “touchstone of the company’s technology development.”

New CEO impresses

The CES show was also an opportunity for the analyst to deliver first impressions of newly installed CEO Perry Mulligan, who impressed Dede with his “professional demeanor and the positive prospect that his large company experience could have on MicroVision's collegial, but forced-to-go-mainstream culture.”

Mulligan stepped into the role about two months ago, after seven years on the board.

“We think the change, overall, should be good for MicroVision given the positive direction … the company is currently managing,” Dede wrote, adding the Mulligan’s supply chain-optimization expertise could lead to “better economic outcomes.

The Wainright analysts reiterated the firm's 'buy' rating and US$3.50 price target on the shares.

Statement from New CEO Perry Mulligan

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Perry Mulligan issues a statement as he assumes the CEO role at MicroVision (MVIS):

As I start my first full week as MicroVision CEO, I want to share my thoughts on the opportunities ahead. Through my time on the company’s board of directors, I am familiar with the management team and the business plan and that has been an advantage while stepping into the CEO role. I am now getting the chance to meet more of the MicroVision team working on the development programs for both our engine products and the custom display solution for a major technology company. We have top-tier technical talent working on these programs, and I am impressed with the people in place, the plans to supplement existing expertise and the progress being made.

My plan is to continue executing the business plan while surveying the market, meeting our current and potential customers and evaluating the technology platform to determine where it can be applied to best advantage in addition to the opportunities we are already pursuing. One of the things that made a big impression on me as I talked to employees last week is the enthusiasm and optimism for the opportunities to apply our PicoP® scanning technology to the mobility, IoT, and LiDAR markets and the pride in the developments this team is making to the platform to align to those opportunities. I look forward to leading the team as we go after these opportunities and to getting to know the shareholders who have been the backbone of our company for many years.

Perry Mulligan, CEO and director
November 20, 2017