Latest news with #BillJones
Metro
4 days ago
- General
- Metro
How a remote Royal Navy base celebrated VJ Day - and the horrors they saw after
Bill Jones witnessed the horrors of the war against Japan after the enemy surrendered on VJ Day Each year that August 15 rolls around, William 'Bill' Jones casts his mind back to VJ Day. It was when, 80 years ago, that Japan announced it had surrendered to the Allied Forces. And while thousands of people in the UK held street parties and parades celebrating the end, Bill's memories from that time are far more bittersweet. The 99-year-old was 14 and living in Penistone, South Yorkshire, when the UK and France declared war on Germany in September 1939 a few days after the Nazis invaded Poland. Six years later, he had been sent 8,500 miles away to a remote Pacific Island, waiting for news of a surrender from Japan. Sign up for all of the latest stories Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens. Bill Jones joined the Navy when he was just 18 (Picture:Royal British Legion) He had decided when he was 18 he would join the Navy in 1944, which led him being trained for combat and sent into action. But instead of fighting German U-Boats in the Atlantic, he was dispatched to the Pacific, where Japanese forces were stubbornly resisting allied advances. The veteran said: 'I had been an engineer, so they made me a metal worker. We went out in a liner all the way to Australia, where we took a carrier into the war zone. That's when it started.' In March 1945, his team of engineers landed in a little coral island of Ponam, off the north coast of Papua New Guinea. By that time, the war in the Pacific had advanced with ruthless intensity. Bill worked on Ponam (pictured) repairing British aircraft during the last months of the war (Picture: Royal British Legion) Bill recalled: 'The Kamikazes were attacking our ships, so we were busy assembling, maintaining and repairing aircrafts for our carriers.' When the war in Europe ended, there was still no end in sight for Bill and his British comrades. Despite the devastating fire-bombing of their cities and the crippling of their armed forces, the Japanese refused to surrender in Asia. Just as Bill was planning to take a Dakota transport plane to Australia for some well-earned rest, the world changed forever. On August 6, the US dropped a nuclear bomb on the city of Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people instantly. Three days later, another one landed on Nagasaki, killing another 40,000 in the blink of an eye. The moment the Nagasaki bomb detonated, as seen from 9.6km away (Picture: Getty) It took just six more days, until August 15, for the Japanese Emperor to concede his country's defeat in a radio broadcast to his people. So it was in a stiflingly-hot, mosquito-riven island when Bill heard that the Second World War had finally come to an end. The news triggered raucous celebrations across the Navy base – including with one unique tradition carried out across the Pacific. It might seem unusual now, but sailors in the Royal Navy had a daily allowance of rum, called a 'tot', an equivalent to about two shots. But on special celebratory occasions, the order was given to 'splice the mainbrace' and allow for the soldiers to have an extra tot of rum. On VJ day, Bill and his fellow soldiers were delighted to learn they could have an extra tot, and embarked across their own parties on the island. He even has a picture of the day, giving a clue about what they all got up to now that his memories have faded. An image from Ponam, believed to be VJ Day – celebrations in full swing. Bill is bottom right, wearing an American hat (Picture:Royal British Legion) But after several days of celebrations, the servicemen were soon reminded of the horrors of war that people across the globe had faced. Two Dakota jets, originally lined up to take Bill and his comrades to Australia before they headed back to the UK, were diverted to Japan to collect prisoners of war. 'On their way back, the Dakotas stopped off at Ponam to refuel,' Bill said. Japanese treated prisoners of war brutally. Pictured is a Japanese camp for British POWs at Kamburi (Picture: Imperial War Museum) 'The prisoners were as thin as rakes, and covered with bruises where they had been beaten, some of them had been prisoners for over three years. 'The canteen prepared food for them but they couldn't eat it. I've never seen anything like it my life, what happened to them. 'We put them back on the planes as soon as possible, to get them to hospital in Australia.' According to the Imperial War Museum, Japan's early successes in East Asia during the Second World War resulted in more than 190,000 British and Commonwealth troops being taken prisoner. It added that at the time, the Japanese military's philosophy was that 'anyone surrendering was beneath contempt.' This means prisoners were held in brutal camps and forced to work exhausting infrastructure projects. Prisoners working on a railway bridge between Thailand & Burma during the second world war. 26,000 Allied prisoners of war who were forced to work on the project died from ill-treatment, malnutrition & disease (Picture: BBC Picture Archives) One of these was the Burma-Thailand 'Death Railway', of which 16,000 died in the brutal construction. British, Commonwealth and Indian troops meanwhile fought Japanese soldiers during the Burma Campaign from December 1941 to September 1945 in the Second World War. The conditions they faced were unimaginable, said Mark Cann, who is the director of the Burma Star Memorial Fund, which honours those who fought during that time. He told Metro: 'They were in this hot, humid jungle full of snakes and spiders and raging river torrents, and nonstop rain. 'There were diseases: dysentery, malaria and cholera. British Commandos wading ashore at Myebon, Burma from a Royal Indian Navy landing craft in January 1945 (Picture: Collection/ANL/Shutterstock) 'The enemy were absolutely terrifying, uncompromising and initially perceived as the real experts of that terrain. 'The fact that they had all of that, all at once, for a sustained period, is what I think we can never really fully understand.' It is because of all of these challenges that when VJ Day arrived, it was a moment of celebration as much as remembrance, Mark said. 'People were celebrating the fact they'd survived. It was a moment of euphoria. It was a moment of 'Bloody hell, I've survived. Thank God. It's over and we won',' he added. Campaigners and charities have said that this year's VJ Day carries extra weight, as it's likely to be the last opportunity to recognise the sacrifices of veterans while a handful of them are still alive. Bill has never forgotten what he saw when those liberated soldiers landed back in Ponam. (Picture:Royal British Legion) Mark added: 'The opportunity VJ80 represents to lay strong foundations for the future is an opportunity not to be missed. 'The life we enjoy now has always, and will always, be preserved by young people marching towards danger, to stand in harm's way for us and the values we hold dear as a nation. 'The debt we owe those young people is immense and we will continue to do everything possible to ensure it is never forgotten.' For Bill, who returned to the UK on Christmas Eve in 1945, it's the servicemen who never made it home that he pays tribute to. 'I was very lucky that I was in the right place at the right time. If I mark VJ Day, it's for the lads that lost their lives.' Bill will be attending the Royal British Legion's Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum, which is broadcast live on BBC One from 11:30am. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. Arrow MORE: The rudest name ever for a video game was a complete accident Arrow MORE: How four people survived one of the deadliest plane crashes that killed 520 Arrow MORE: Meet Britain's Doomsday preppers stockpiling for World War Three
CBS News
28-07-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Jerry Jones on "enthusiasm" at Dallas Cowboys training camp, new head coach and "Landman" appearance
Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones sat down for a one-on-one conversation with CBS Sports Texas' Bill Jones at Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calif. over the weekend. Watch the full interview in the player above. Bill Jones remarked to Jerry Jones that he has been coming to training camp for more than 40 years, and does not recall a training camp with as much energy as this one. "I happen to agree with you. First of all, I know it's never been more beautiful out here," Jerry Jones said, praising the facilities and beauty in Oxnard. "Then you add Brian Schottenheimer's new juice coming in, enthusiasm, those young coaches bouncing around here. It's contagious for the players. And then when the players start acting like that, we all get to thinking we could step out there and catch a pass." Jerry Jones made waves earlier this year when he decided to hire Brian Schottenheimer as the Cowboys' head coach. The 51-year-old has been an assistant coach his entire career, spending the past two seasons as the Cowboys' offensive coordinator under the offensive-minded former head coach Mike McCarthy, who called the plays. Jones said he was originally considering tapping Schottenheimer to take over the offense and call plays under whatever new coach was hired. "All of a sudden, you realize you've got somebody sitting there with almost 30 years of experience coaching in the NFL, yet he was still, relatively speaking, just a pup, really. And, he hasn't head-coached. I'm a big believer in someone that has their shot. And I remember telling him, 'Brian, you're not Brian Schottenheimer anymore. You're now the coach of the Dallas Cowboys,'" Jones said. One of the biggest moves the Cowboys made in the offseason was trading for wide receiver George Pickens. Pickens has plenty of talent to line up opposite of CeeDee Lamb, totaling 174 catches and 12 touchdowns over the first three years of his career. But he also developed a reputation for causing issues in the locker room for his former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. That, Jones said, is what gave the Cowboys the opportunity to make the trade. "There's no question that he could contribute to our success. But I like his attitude. And, a lot of people might say, well, he had some off-the-field issue ... but that's just exactly where you get opportunity," Jones said. "You'll see, he's going to make a big impact." The lack of a contract extension for Cowboys star pass rusher Micah Parsons has been the talk of training camp. The team is no stranger to the situation, with similarly drawn-out contract talks with Lamb and QB Dak Prescott in 2024. Bill Jones told Jerry Jones that Lamb admitted in hindsight that his lack of participation in training camp last year affected his chemistry with Prescott. Bill Jones then asked how much time Parsons would need to be ready for the Cowboys' first game on Sept. 4. "I'm glad that CeeDee said that, and he needs to tell it to everybody. And, if you've got a contract, come to camp," Jerry Jones replied. He did not directly address the negotiations with Parsons. Aside from football, Jones got attention earlier this year for his appearance on the Paramount+ series "Landman." In his scene, Jones gives life advice to the character played by actor John Hamm while he was recovering the hospital, with the script centering around spending time with his kids. Jones said he was surprised about how much attention the scene received. "It reminds me again, it's the subject matter. If you talk about kids, are you talk about the right subject. Now, you may string some strums of some hearts that otherwise wouldn't be listening. And in that case, the part was about, kids and who's going to be with you when you are in the hospital for the last time. All of that was there. We practice that without a doubt," Jones said.
USA Today
29-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Brooklyn Nets jersey history No. 20 - Bill Jones (1989)
The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the "New Jersey Americans". Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today. To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise's jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. The 21st of those 52 different numbers is jersey No. 20, which has has had a total of 28 players wear the number in the history of the team. The 11th of those players wearing No. 20 played in the (then) New Jersey (now, Brooklyn) Nets era, forward alum Bill Jones. After ending his college career at Iowa, Jones would go unselected in the 1988 NBA draft, playing in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA -- that era's version of the G League) for part of a season. The Detroit, Michigan native signed with New Jersey in 1989 for his sole campaign at the NBA level, playing in just 37 games. During his time suiting up for the Nets, Jones wore only jersey No. 20 and put up 3.5 points and 1.3 rebounds per game. All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q1 2025 BIO-Key International Inc Earnings Call
Bill Jones; Investor Relations; BIO-key International Inc Michael DePasquale; Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; BIO-Key International Inc Cecilia Welch; Chief Financial Officer; BIO-Key International Inc Operator Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by and welcome to BIO-key International's first quarter 2025 conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Friday, May 16, 2025. I will now turn the call over to Bill Jones, Investor Relations. You may proceed, sir. Bill Jones Thank you, Rocco. Hosting today are BIO-key's Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale and Chief Financial Officer Cecilia Welch. As a reminder, today's conference call on webcast and answers to investor questions include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Words including anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan. And project or similar words generally identify and express such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made based on beliefs, assumptions, and information currently available to management today pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For a more complete description of the risks and uncertainties that affect future performance of BIO-key, please see risk factors in the company's annual report as filed on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which speak only as of today. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or disclose revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that may occur after today's conference call. Now, I will turn the call over to Mike to begin. Mike? Michael DePasquale Thanks, Bill, and thank you all for joining today's call. After my remarks, I'll turn the call over to Ceci for a financial overview, and then we will open the call for investor questions. Our Q1 '25 revenue rose 10% to $1.6 million versus Q4 '24 as we continue our transition to selling high margin Baoki-branded products in the EMEA region. Our year over year revenue comparison, however, was impacted by $1.2 million in revenue in Q1 last year for a two-year follow on contract with a financial services customer. Importantly, the same customer has upgraded their engagement to include our more advanced one to many biometric authentication solution, resulting in Q1 '25 revenue of $690,000. But accounting for much of our year over year revenue decrease. This enhanced fingerprint only by metric ID system requires no card or account number for client identification, just a fingerprint scan. The solution will save thirty seconds from each client's interaction, providing increased security and an improved customer experience, while also delivering substantial long-term personnel savings for our customer. This is a very compelling use case that should offer BIO-key significant new revenue opportunities across a whole new plethora of opportunities, again, in the same industries and others as well. Importantly, based on the customer's expanded deployment of our identity-bound biometric technology, we expect revenue from this customer to more than double to approximately $3 million for the next two-year license period starting in Q1 '26, up from the $1.2 million in Q1 '24. That is very positive and represents. Nearly half of what our total revenue number was last year. Our gross profit remained healthy in Q1 at 83% due to our high margin software as a service model. And we're able to reduce our SG&A expense by 23% year over year. Our cash position increased substantially in Q1 '25 to over $3 million, reflecting proceeds from warrant exercises early in the quarter. We also reduced our note payable by more than half from year end 2024 to a balance of approximately $7620 on the original $2.3 million dollar note. These balance sheet improvements provide solid support for the company as we pursue new growth opportunities. We're seeing solid traction for our identity-bound biometric solutions in key verticals such as defense and financial services, both of which require the highest levels of security and privacy. These customers are drawn by our unique ability to authenticate the individual seeking data or network access rather than alternate solutions that rely on alternate factors far more prone to being compromised. We now support secure biometric authentication from multiple foreign, national, and international defense and police organizations who trust BIO-key Solutions, and we are working to build on these powerful endorsements in our business development efforts. During the first quarter, the National Bank of Egypt began integrating BIO-key's industry leading portal guard IAM platform. The project was led by our partner Raya Information Technology, leveraging Portal Guard's advanced IAM, FA MFA, and SSO capabilities to secure the digital identities of the bank's 30,000 employees. Down the road, we believe there's significant upside potential for this solution to be rolled out to the banks and users as the bank gains more experience with our solution, and we work to progress that relationship. We're also working to build our base in the government sector, which includes federal agencies as well as state, local, and education or sled markets. Domestically, we serve over 100 educational institutions with over $4 million end users. These customers value bioee security, ease of use, and flexibility, including our support for 17 different authentication factors, which together provide a compelling solution with an attractive return on investment. Giving increasing bans on the use of cell phones in schools, there's a growing interest in our password list, phone lists, and token list authentication solutions to meet pressing security and usability challenges. In Q1 '25, the Wyoming Department of Education deployed Portal Guard IDAS to support up to 20,000 end users. Additionally, many of our existing college and university customers are migrating from our on-prem solution to Portal Guard IDAS, further expanding our base of recurring revenue. Also during Q1, we executed a strategic partnership and jointur agreement with California's Edtech Joint Powers Authority, enabling Portal Guard to become an approved solution for 195 K-12 schools and school districts that serve over 2.6 million students in California. Member schools are able to access the JPA website to easily purchase and deploy approved solutions. We believe BIO-key is uniquely positioned to comply with the California Phone Free Schools regulations, which limit or prohibit smartphone use in schools by July of 2026. Whereas most competing solutions rely on phone authentication authenticators or hardware security keys, neither of which are practical solutions in school. So this could be a significant opportunity for us. From a strategic standpoint, we are particularly encouraged about the growth opportunities in the EIA regions of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where we have been seeing improving traction and a particular interest in our differentiated identity bound biometrics capabilities. We have refocused our efforts on BIO-key branded solutions in those markets following our transition away from swivel secure license solutions and services beginning in the latter half of 2024. While this transition has resulted in some challenging year over year revenue comparisons, it has focused our sales and marketing efforts while providing us greater control and much stronger margin profiles. We expect our expanding EMEA Group to return to growth with enhanced margins as we progress through 2025. For many years we've been highlighting the growing IT security risks and demonstrated vulnerabilities of many widely deployed IAM solutions, and yet we have been amazed by the limited forward movement by enterprises to address these risks. The good news is that we are finally starting to see governments and enterprises taking action to protect their data and networks with more powerful. More strong IAM solutions like our identity bound biometrics. From our vantage point, C-suites and boards around the world are increasingly recognizing the limitations of legacy authentication methods relying on passwords, pins, tokens, cards, or mobile devices, as well as the risks, vulnerabilities, and the cost of inaction. We are seeing this in our discussions with customers, prospects, and our channel channel alliance partners, and more importantly, in customer action, including some of the most world's most sophisticated defense agencies that we are serving. BIO-key offers a powerful suite of IAM solutions that meet these challenges, and we expect the move to password list, boneless, and token list authentication solutions will offer continued opportunity for us to grow and gain traction in 2025 and beyond. Given this backdrop, our improved balance sheet, and our expanding base of recurring IDAS revenue, we feel BIO-key is well positioned to achieve improved top and bottom-line results. Given our size and variable timing of large customer orders and renewals, we expect our financial performance to fluctuate quarter to quarter as it has been. But supported by this growing base of recurring revenue, which is over $6 million right now, we think we're going to become more stable. Now, I will hand the call over to CFO to our CFO Cecilia Welch, to review our financial position, and then we'll open the call to questions. Cecilia Welch Thank you, Mike. Our results were released after the market closed yesterday along with the filing of our 10. Now, let me review some of the operating highlights. As mentioned, we exited the swivel secure Services Agreement as related to royalty structure and fees created a fairly low margin business and we reallocated resources towards the bike branded business. While the termination has created some revenue headwinds in the later half of 2024 and 2025. It will strengthen our business longer term, focusing our activities on BIO-key solutions with superior capabilities and enhanced margins. As Mike discussed, our Q1 revenue comparison was impacted by roughly $50 million year over year decrease in revenue recorded in a financial services customer. The decrease resulted in the timing of revenue recognition from the customer that is actually expanding their deployment of BIO-key technology. Given that impact and the transition to bike solutions, our me territories. In our Aria territories, our Q125 revenue decreased to $1.6 million in Q125 compared with $2.2 million in Q1, 2024. Q1 '25 service revenues increased to approximately 273,000 from 213,000 in Q1 '24. Recurring support service revenue increased to 37% to 265,000 due to the incremental support services for a large customer service agreement. Non-recurring service revenue decreased by 12,000 during deer wind. Down of a security, a secure customer. Hydro revenue increased to 236,000 in Q1 '25 from 18,000 in Q1 '24. Due largely to increased purchases of fingerprint biometric scanners to support expanded deployment of our identity bound biometric solutions. Gross margin declined to $1.3 million in Q125 from 1.9% in Q1 '24, principally due to the decrease in total revenue as well as the modest decline in gross margin to 82.6% in Q1 '25 versus 86.3% in Q1 '24, reflecting an increase in low margin hardware as a percentage of revenue in the respective periods. BIO-key reduced operating expenses by approximately 18% or 422,000 to $2 million in Q1 '25, primarily due to reduction in SG&A expenses of 23% or 410,000, reflecting lower admin expenses, sales personnel costs, and professional service fees. Reflecting lower revenues partially offset by lower operating costs, IOT's Q1 '25 net loss increased to approximately $737,000 or $0.16 per share, versus a loss of $573,000 or $0.32 per share in the prior year period. The per share amounts are based on $4.7 million weighted average shares outstanding in Q1 '25 compared to $1.6 million weighted average shares outstanding in Q1 '24, principally reflecting the share increase pursuant to the warrant exercise in 2021 2025. In January 25, the exercise of warrants priced at $1.85 per share, generated gross proceeds of approximately $3.8 million before agent fees and offering expenses. As of March 31, 2025, BIO-key has current assets of $4.6 million, including $3.1 million of cash up from the current. The current assets of $1.9 million, including $4 million in cash. This concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, please prepare for Q&A session. Operator Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And today's first question comes from Jack Vander Aarde with Maxim Group. Please go ahead. Okay, good morning, great, I appreciate the update guys. Thanks for taking my questions. So Mike, that large customer that you referenced, contributed $690,000 in the first quarter of this year. Last year did, I guess it was $1.2 million in the first quarter 24, and you mentioned they upgraded, I believe, and. You also expect them to renew, I guess, at a larger contract of $3 million over a two year period, I think you said. As of 1226, so a couple of things is that correct? 1226 and then do you expect any other revenue this year from that customer? And is this your single largest customer? Michael DePasquale That's a loaded question. Great. Great. So, thanks Jack and good morning. So yes, it is now our single largest customer, so we'll get that out of the way. They've upgraded to our latest technology, which is fundamentally doubled the ARR. So on an annual basis, they went from about $600,000 to $700,000 to approximately. $1.4 million $1.5 million and so we've been working with this customer for many years. This upgrade, which is what they paid for in the first quarter, right, on an annual basis about $700,000 in Q1. A will now represent in Q1 of 26, right, so fundamentally nine months from now, give or take, about a $3 million renewal. And if they do a two year, that'll be $3 million they'll pay up front. If they do an annual contract, it may be a little bit more and it'll be paid annually, but it'll be at least $1.5 million in. In ARR and revenue and cash to BIO-key and obviously it's, all margin it's all software so very positive. Okay, great, and then maybe just to follow up on the 1225 revenue so just trying to get a sense of the rest of the attribution there, so outside of 6900, that leaves about another 900,000 of revenue generated in the quarter. So what was the bulk of this? Was it Wyoming Department of Education? Was it National Bank of Egypt? Was it kind of half and half there, or was there a bunch of other fragmented or little revenues as well? Just how do I understand the rest of the revenue. Michael DePasquale Yeah, it's a mix. So we have service and maintenance revenue. We have new customer revenue like Wyoming and National Bank of Egypt. We have upgrades to our, install base as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, right, we're moving customers from on-prem into up into our IDAS, which is an upsell, generates more revenue for us and again commits customers to sometimes multi-year contracts. So it was really a mix of everything. Okay, great. And can you just touch on to is the Wyoming, well the Wyoming Department of Education, and the National Bank of Egypt, will these contribute to two revenue or these one-Q events? Michael DePasquale They were one-Q events and Egypt, there might be some, continuing opportunity right for upgrades, enhancements and all that stuff, but Wyoming, I believe, signed a multi-year agreement and the revenue for that opportunity was taken in the first quarter. Obviously there's deferral, there's some deferred revenue on that we carve out of contracts for support, but fundamentally it's Q1 event. Okay, great, and then I haven't really heard of it explicitly mentioned and maybe I apologize if I missed this, but can you maybe just touch on Passkey again, that solution you announced I originally back in June of 2024. What, what's the latest with Passkey? Well, Passkeys are getting pretty widely adopted across the board, and the unique value that we provide with our Passkey solution is that a biometric can become a Passkey and it can be a phyto authenticator, right? So it's very unique difference from someone using a Passkey with a phone or their computer. So it's something that. We can sell to virtually any customer no matter what current security infrastructure they may be using, so they may be using something from CellPoint or ForgeRock or even OTA or Ping or Duo. We can layer on our pass key solution on top of that in areas in their enterprise or their government agency where they can't use a phone, they can't use a hardware token because. It's not allowed or it's just not practical like on the manufacturing floor or in the call center where you don't want anyone using, a cell phone, a mobile phone there, right? You literally disable the network inside a call center. So we have something here that's very unique and that can be applied across the board. In, throughout again enterprise and government opportunities and we're starting to see some really good traction and interest for it and we think that has a really good, it is a really good play for us going forward, but I think the biggest opportunity for us is really and it's almost amazing to me because I've been at this for 20 years, the core technology that we developed. Over the last 20 plus years, is now being widely viewed as the most secure and most convenient option for enterprises and government agencies. They realize that provisioning keys using mobile phones, not having control over the networks present a huge security risk and That, herein lies a really big opportunity. The second thing is, think about all of, especially in EEA, all of the countries now that are being Somewhat forced right by our actions here in the US to step up their defense and security posture and the money that's being allocated to do that. I believe in Germany they said they would spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years enhancing their defense. In Spain just two weeks ago, our managing director. I was at a conference there with the former prime minister of Spain and the new regime there, and they are going to double their defense budgets in the coming, quarters through this year and into next year and beyond. So that is a huge opportunity. We built a really nice base of defense related, security related. Agencies and now we can really take advantage of that and leverage that and we have a very strong team and a very strong partner network in Europe to be able to do that. Mm. Okay, that's really interesting, Mike, I could probably ask a bunch more questions on that front, but maybe I'll ask you how do you see those opportunities in different regions, different governments, stepping up their budgets for defense? How do you see those opportunities, the magnitude of those potential opportunities compared to say the largest customer that we talked about that's going to renew on a three year contract. A $3 million dollar contract coming up in 1,226 or like the Bank of Egypt. How did you see those opportunity I mean, are these real game changers in your view, from a revenue scale, in any idea of like how attainable they are, how quickly you could maybe penetrate some of those opportunities? Michael DePasquale Yeah, well, first of all, pretty quickly you'll hear more about that from us as we're able to obviously discuss them, one of the biggest challenges in that space is secrecy, right? It's very difficult to talk about those things and those agencies are typically not desirous of disclosing that, but We have a defense ministry that's done millions with us over the last probably three or so years, and we think they can do millions with us over the next year or two. The size of these deals, some of them in small countries could be $500 to start or larger. They're typically recovering revenue. They are mostly including our biometric technology, which means there's potential for not only recovering software but also hardware sales. And if you look at our, gross margins, blending gross margins, we're 82% this quarter. That's with hardware. So these are sizable opportunities, game changers, and I think they could dramatically change the profile of the company. If you look at what we've been able to do in the context of scaling our expenses now, given we've invested very heavily in development in developing our technology, a little bit of scale here gets us to our end game of profitability very quickly. So I think these are the kinds, those are the kinds of opportunities that can get us there this year. Okay, no, I appreciate that fantastic, and then, I know you don't provide guidance, but you know we're halfway through the second quarter, wondering if a couple questions here, on the outlook, are there any large renewals kind of like you had or repeat purchase orders, renewals kind of like we just talked about that that large mini defense ministry customer. Are there any of those in the 2nd quarter or for the rest of this year that are coming up that, are worth noting? And then the second part of my question is, do you have any just general comments on the 2nd quarter, seasonality wise or how it looks compared to last year, or what your expectations are? Thanks. Good. Michael DePasquale Okay, so on the guidance thing, you're right, we haven't provided guidance, but here's what I will say, and this applies to the second quarter and beyond. We're going to grow. And our goal and objective is to sequentially grow our business and we have a model now. We have a really good base of customers and we have a very strong pipeline of opportunities, albeit, it's got to close, right? There's some very large deals. There's a whole bunch of smaller ones, but I think we're in a better position than we probably have ever been to be able to continue to grow this business on a sequential basis. Seasonality wise, typically our third quarter because of the August session in in Ee, right, in Europe in particular, right, August is a very slow month in Europe. So typically from a seasonality perspective, you might see some challenge in the third quarter, but other than that, I think our goal and objective is to sequentially grow this business this year and to get ourselves to profitability. That's our goal and objective. Okay, great. So you expect it sounds like you expect, I know it's not formal guidance, but just as a reasonable barometer here for investors, you're expecting sequential growth throughout the rest of this year, so Q2, Q3, Q4 should kind of kick up as we go forward each quarter or it will, it could be lumpy maybe but. That's kind of a good framework to think about? Michael DePasquale Absolutely. That's our goal and objective. And again, I put the caveat in for the seasonality and, in Europe, right, just in the 3rd quarter, but short of that, I think that's a fair statement and it's a fair perspective on our objectives and our plan for this year. Okay great and then if I could just sneak one more in there, Michael, this has been very helpful so you guys did a great job of controlling the OpEx operating expenses definitely dipped down quite a bit and. And yet you still achieve that sequential growth, and the gross margins held up very strong, especially on the hardware line even too, so that that's good to see what's your confidence with your margins and your kind of operating expense control outlook is this is one a good baseline of what to expect going forward as well with that sequential growth? Michael DePasquale Well, on the gross margin side, I can say that this is where we like to be, right? We certainly want to be in that 80% range, so or higher, right, and that may depend on some very large, right, we get a very large software, ARR contract that could go up a little bit higher, but we'd like to be in that range, in the context of expenses we. Maybe I'll ask Ceci to answer that. I mean, do you believe that the Q1 is a good measure of where we'll be? I mean, we are very diligent in the context of controlling all of our expenses all the way around. We've, we're spending money where we believe we're going to get a return and and not a long term return, a short term return or a medium term return, but anyway, Cici? Cecilia Welch Yes, Mike, and I agree that's relatively a good rate, we have a couple of shows planned and that bumps it up a little bit. We also have, good commission plan in place so you know that will ride ride with the tide and, then again we have our annual meeting which also bumps up some of our costs, but we've been really trying to rein things in, use services versus hiring. So we've been, I think really focused on that and it's paid off. Great, so, just real quick a follow up to that, do you think the second quarter has some of those, in, one off or, seasonal kind of events or shows, that might will that incremental pick up happen in the second quarter or would it happen in the third quarter? Cecilia Welch Well, the second quarter we have, lunch show, so it's not, it won't be a big tick, and the, meeting is usually in the third quarter. That's what we have planned right now, but I, I'm not expecting, a big $200,000 increase or anything like that, we relatively, we get a booth, we get some travel, so it's not a huge bump, but it's, it will bump. Got it. Okay, very helpful, guys. Thank you Ceci thank you Michael. I appreciate the time. Michael DePasquale Great, thanks Jack. Operator Thank you. And our next question today comes from Dan Cummings, a private investor. Please go ahead. Hey guys, the improvements in the balance sheet is actually quite impressive. Just To ask another question on the SG&E which dropped to $1.37 million, I mean I looked at the stats and was it $3.05 million in December 2022. It hasn't been this slow since June 2021. Was there a drop in headcount? How did you, manage that kind of, what is that, a 55% drop in a couple of years? Michael DePasquale Ceci? Cecilia Welch Yes, there was a change in headcount, there, we, like I said, we did some services versus that, we definitely reduced our marketing expenses, and trying to think of, oh, and we changed our audit firm which made a big difference too for what we're getting versus what we're paying and some rent, we lowered our rent expenses for our Egan and our New Jersey, which again made huge differences, cut one out and one in half. Got it. Thank you. Also, deferred revenue looks to be at a at least a five year high from what I can tell, increasing. Do you expect That increased to continue is that an indicator of increasing business or is there some stalled delivery or how do I read that? Cecilia Welch You read that, we are converting a lot of, one year contracts for a lot of our schools into three and five year contracts. So we recognize some of the revenue up front and then the rest is deferred over that for support maintenance, according to GAAP basically. So I am, it is not because of, we're not performing something, it's definitely because of increasing the longevity and the size of some of the contracts. Good talking about, cash burn. It was, I think, 835k in this quarter and $1.8 million over the last two quarters. Meanwhile you're Accounts payable and accrued liabilities I think came down from, I don't know, between 2 and $3 million to about $1.6million. So it looks like about $1.3 million of the $1.8 million cash burn in operations were came from paying these down, do you expect to continue paying down your payables that way? I'm trying to get a feel for your expected cash burn over the next couple quarters? Cecilia Welch No, we were not in a good cast position at the end of the year to pay them, and when we were, we did pay them, so we are basically 45 day payment terms with most of our suppliers, so I don't expect that high of a bur in, either one of the accrued liabilities or payables. Okay, so, we might see then decreased cash burn then in the next couple quarters. Cecilia Welch Yeah, depending on collections on AR, I would hope so. I think you've got, I think that 900k in current debt is due by the end of the year. Do do you have any feeling when that will get paid off? We're working on several different things that, we will definitely pay it off by the term, but we, as you've seen, we've been paying some down. As we raise money or as money comes in, so, they're very happy with us. They've actually been done some conversion of of stock for, payment of the loan. So, we have several opportunities and they're a great company to work with, so I have expectations of paying it back in time, if not before. Last question along this line is, the accounts receivable are. In low range relative to the last four years. Is that a harbinger that cash burn will increase in the 2nd quarter by any chance? Cecilia Welch No, we've had, reserve on AR which we've kept at the level that it was basically, we've also had some payments of some larger money that came in which contributed to, the cash, at the end of the quarter. So, we expect them. It just depends when the orders come in really, you'll see it go up and down and also remember there's a reserve on it as well. Okay, thanks. Hey Mike. You said you're you mentioned supporting a number of national and international defense and police organizations in your release, I think. You say International Defense Agency, do you mean like a defense contractor, or do you mean like government defense ministry, like, I don't know, the British Ministry of Defense or French Armed Forces Ministry or something like that. Michael DePasquale The latter, absolutely. It's defense ministry it's government defense ministries. Some of those opportunities come through partners in the Emir region. Typically they do, right, because these defense agencies and enterprises always buy through some reseller, distributor, partner, value added reseller, whatever. So but the answer is no. It it is, it is directly related to government defense ministries, not contractors. I see and what is the, I know there was a, an international one that you mentioned, and you've had one ongoing that I think you mentioned is, has been worth millions of dollars or a million dollars a year. How does this new one sort of, relative to the older one in terms of expected, income do you expect it to kind of grow to meet the other one or is it a smaller contract or? Michael DePasquale Well sometimes they start off small and then they grow and develop, but we have not announced. The, it's very difficult. I mentioned this before, so I'm not going to repeat myself, very difficult to get. These agencies to allow us to discuss anything that we're doing for them directly right? So it's always a kind of a blind announcement and even that's a challenge, depending upon the type of agency and what we're actually engaged or involved in with them but we have a number of of these in motion right now, some closed and more in the works. I see. Well, the release said that the install happened in 4 days. Does that mean that the scope is smaller in size, ? Michael DePasquale No, it just means that the partner that we work with on that opportunity, and Bioey were able to very quickly deploy our portal guard technology, including the biometrics. In in days, I mean, some of these IAM deployments take months and we were able to deploy in days, so that was the point we were trying to make in in the release. Yeah, I see. Any update on your investment in, Boomerang? Michael DePasquale No, nothing, to speak of at this point. I know that they are heavily involved in acquiring other technologies and also I guess getting there prototypes move to production, but beyond that I really don't have any update. Okay, any update on the sale of some of your written off inventory? Michael DePasquale Yes, aggressively pursuing so we we hope to to move a substantial chunk of that inventory. Pretty soon, that's our goal and objective. I see, I think most of the hardware in the first quarter was not that inventory, right? Michael DePasquale There was some of that, but the bulk of it was our traditional, fingerprint scanner technology that we sell to our enterprise and government type customers. Oh yeah, and talking about that, I think at some point you had that a lot of inventory in China. Is that inventory still in China or, and are the tariffs affecting the price of your readers. Michael DePasquale The answer on the tariffs affecting the price of our readers, no, and we do have some inventory in China, although I don't think it's significant, but we do have inventory parts and pieces, components that we. I used to build our eco ID and our sideswipe and side touch readers. Okay, I think I got one last question maybe on evaluation, it looks like your stockholders' equity is about. $7.5 million on $4.7 million shares, that's about $1.60 a share. Your your stock is trading for half that. Cash is at $3.1 million which is incredible, and that's about $0.66 a share, so, the market seems to be assigning a value of about a million dollars to your company excluding cash. I think the assumption being made there, if I could assume for the market, is that your equity in cash will trend towards 0% by the end of the year and you'll have to raise additional capital. What would you say to an investor who had that view? The facts do not portray that it's the only thing I can say, I can't control the market nor understand the dynamics right up and down. I mean you've seen our our stock trade hundreds of millions of shares, on an announcement and then rise, exponentially and then come back down. I don't know what to say. I don't control that, but the facts don't bear that thesis, so, that's it, so I have. I appreciate it. I appreciate the time. Thanks, CC. Thanks, Mike. Michael DePasquale Thank you Dan. Operator (Operator Instructions) Showing no further questions, the Q&A session has ended. Now, I'll ask Michael DePasquale to provide closing remarks. Michael DePasquale Thank you everyone for your time today and for joining the call. You may reach out to our IR team whose contact information is in today's press release with any follow up, actually yesterday's press release with any follow up questions. Also, look for us at two upcoming conferences. First, at the Agis Capital virtual conference on Thursday, May 22, and then at Maxim Group's 2025 virtual tech conference on Wednesday, June 4, both at 11 a.m., by the way, we expect to participate virtually and be available for investor meetings for both. We look forward to updating you on our Q2 call this summer and we'll provide interim news and updates via press release. Thank you again and have a great weekend. Operator Thanks, everybody. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. 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Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
River flooding to persist for days, weeks following ‘1-in-1,000-year' rain event
Rains have ended over the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi river basins, but runoff from 8-16 inches of rain over just a few days will continue to surge into larger rivers and lead to moderate to major flooding that could persist for weeks, AccuWeather meteorologists advise. The combination of severe weather and flooding has claimed the lives of at least 19 people, including young children, since late last week. The amount of rain that fell over a four-day stretch was rare, only occurring once every 100 to 1,000 years over a broad area, based on the historical average. "AccuWeather experts estimate that the economic loss from the severe weather and flooding in recent days in the middle of the nation is between $80 billion and $90 billion," said Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter. "Unless property owners have specific flood insurance, losses and repairs will most likely not be covered by standard policies." As of Monday morning, 18 river gauge sites were at major flood stage, and 256 locations across the central U.S. were at or above flood stage, spanning multiple rivers and tributaries. Bill Jones rides his boat through a flooded neighborhood near the Kentucky River on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry) "The Kentucky River at Frankford Lock, Kentucky, has crested just under the all-time record of 48.47 feet. Records at the location along the river date back to at least the early 1800s, "AccuWeather Meteorologist Alyssa Glenny said. In Kentucky alone, more than 500 roads were closed due to high water this past the app? Unlock AccuWeather Alerts™ with Premium+ Water levels on the small streams and some secondary rivers will begin to drop in the coming days. However, the number of locations on the largest rivers - such as the Ohio and lower Mississippi - will reach a major flood stage and trend higher. The larger the river, the longer the flood cycle lasts. Some roads may be closed for an extended period, which could isolate some communities. At multiple points along the Mississippi River- including near its confluence with the Ohio River - water levels are projected remain at major flood stage for a 10- to 14-day period this April. As the surge slowly works downstream, moderate to major flood levels are not projected to occur in parts of the Mississippi Delta region until around the third and fourth weeks of the month. Water spilling into unprotected areas along the river, including farmland, could remain for several weeks. Even after floodwaters recede, some fields may remain inaccessible to equipment needed for plowing and planting. The high water levels and fast flow on the Mississippi River will force reductions in tug and barge operations. Tugboats will not be able to push as many barges in a single load to maintain safe navigation. In areas where flooding has occurred or where waters begin to recede, property owners will face major cleanup challenges, including mud removal and mold damage. Water supplies may be contaminated by chemicals or bacteria and will need to be boiled or tested before use. Some weakened structures may collapse without notice, and jagged debris can also cause injuries. People involved in cleanup operations should ensure their tetanus immunizations or boosters are up to date. Wild animals, including snakes, may have been displaced by the flooding and could pose a danger. There is some good news in terms of weather for much of the region. The weather pattern will shut off the flow of Gulf moisture for the next week or so, reducing the risk of widespread showers and thunderstorms. While a few spotty showers or storms are possible, little to no rain is expected across much of the middle and lower Mississippi and Ohio valleys through the upcoming weekend at least. However, oeriodic cold conditions can hinder cleanup efforts into the weekend. Parts of the region also face the risk of frosts and freezes, which could damage blossoming and early planting. Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts™ are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
