This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk04: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Blondertongue Laboratories' fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Ted Grau. Sir, the floor is yours.
spk03: Thank you very much. Hi. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us and participating in Blondertongue Laboratories 2021. fourth quarter and four-year earnings call. I'm Ted Grau, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. As we give our remarks this morning, we will be discussing certain subjects that will contain forward-looking statements, including management's view of our prospects and evolving trends in the market. As you know, the future is all but impossible to predict, and so I caution you that actual results may differ materially from those that may be projected in our comments. We would ask you to refer to our prior SEC filings, including our Form 10-K for years 2019 and 2020, and our filed Form 10-Qs for the first three quarters of 2020 and for the first three quarters of 2021, as well as our upcoming 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2021, which also includes information about our Q4 2020 results and 2021 results. Each of those filings include additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from information discussed this morning. With me today are Stephen Shea, our Chairman of the Board of Launder Tongue Laboratories, and Eric Skolnick, our Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President. Eric's remarks will follow mine and will cover our detailed financial results. All of us will be available to answer questions that you may have during a Q&A session immediately following our prepared remarks. For our 2021 full-year results, the company is able to announce a small but positive net income of $84,000, compared with a net loss of $7.47 million for the full year of 2020. The change in year-on-year performance came from a combination of our continued work and progress on operating efficiencies, an improved higher technology product mix that improved our blended product gross margins, and the recognition of significant non-operating income in 2021. The sources of our non-operating income were from the company's qualification for the federal ERTC program in 2021 and the forgiveness of our 2020 Paycheck Protection Program loan that occurred in mid-2021. As discussed on previous quarterly earnings calls, both the federal ERTC and PPP programs were associated with pandemic relief. Our improved product mix yielded a blended gross margin, excuse me, a blended product gross margin improvement in 2021 of 39.8% versus 30% in 2020. And our continued operating efficiency work has yielded a 23% reduction over the last two years when comparing January 2020 versus January 2022 monthly operating expenses. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the company experienced product delivery challenges caused by semiconductor supply chain shortages, with delays, price increases, and batch size uncertainties growing throughout the quarter. Our 2021 fourth quarter sales decreased by 7.7% to $3.993 million from $4.327 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. And our net loss for the fourth quarter was $927,000, compared with a net loss of $2.413 million in the same quarter for 2020. Although the quarter was a relative improvement year on year, it was not in line with our average performance during the first three quarters of last year. In particular, the company had to engage in a series of price increases in an effort to compensate for a very fast-moving environment of rising raw materials costs throughout the quarter. Conversely, the company saw a continued positive movement in product demand in our more advanced technology products, and that had begun during the third quarter of 2021 and was discussed in our third quarter earnings call. Those included demand for our NXG IP video processing products, our Clearview encoder and transcoder product lines, and our AirCaster professional off-air receiver product. This pickup in market demand ultimately led to a year-ending product backlog of approximately $10.2 million on December 31st. On the product front, the company completed and released into production a total of 14 new products and product derivatives during the full year of 2021. We've most recently announced our TiVo-specific NXG platform configuration and our TiVo Hospitality Market Sales Partnership as well as Blonderton Laboratory selection and product certification by DIRECTV for our Clearview 4-2 IP video transcoder product line. That announcement also includes our Clearview 4-2 high definition, our standard definition products, as well as our 24-channel and 12-channel versions of those products, as well as those products also being qualified for DIRECTV's equipment subsidy program that they have for their dealers. As the company is entering 2022, we have continued to see improving market demand in a number of areas. So far, that has been an improving hospitality sector, increased demand for our high-speed data products, and a continued positive trend in demand for our latest, most modern, and highest technology video processing, encoding, and transcoding NXG and Clearview product lines. Our biggest challenges have continued from the fourth quarter into early 2022. And at this time, supply chain issues are expected to be the primary driver of uncertainty in our 2022 financial performance. Now, I would like to pass things over to Eric Skolnick, our Chief Financial Officer, to cover our detailed financial results. Eric?
spk02: Thanks, Ted. Our net sales decreased $334,000, or 7.7%, to $3,993,000 for the fourth quarter of 2021. from $4,327,000 for the comparable period in 20. The net loss for the three months ended December 31st, 2021 was a loss of $927,000 or a 7 cent loss per share compared to a loss of $2,413,000 or a 23 cent loss per share for the comparable period in 2020. The decrease in sales is primarily attributable to a decrease in sales of CPE products, DOCSIS data products, analog modulation products, and coax distribution products, offset in part by an increase in IP video encoder-transcoder products and our next-gen IP video signal processing series of products. Sales of CPE products were $23,000 and $1,114,000. DOCSIS data products were $122,000 and $418,000. Analog modulation products were $133,000 and 438,000. Coax distribution products were 171,000 and 287,000. Video encoder-transcoder products were 2,529,000 and 1,381,000. And our next-gen series products were 614,000 and 135,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2020, respectively. For the year ended December 31st, 2021, our net sales decreased $625,000 or 3.8% to $15,754,000 in 2021 from $16,379,000 in 2020. Our net earnings for the 12 months ended December 31st, 2021 were $84,000 or a 2 cents per share, diluted share, excuse me, compared to a net loss of $7,474,000, or a loss of 76 cents per share for the comparable period in 2020. The decrease in sales is primarily attributable to a decrease in sales of CPE products, DOCSIS data products, analog modulation products, and coax distribution products, offset in part by an increase in IP video encoder transcoder products and next-gen IP video signal processing products. Sales of CPE products were $1,120,000 and $4,165,000. DOCSIS data products were $755,000 and $2,184,000. Analog modulation products were $790,000 and $1,274,000. Coax distribution products were $1,266,000 and $1,603,000. Video encoder transcoder products were $7,863,000 and $4,000,000. $245,000, and our next-gen series products were $1,924,705 in 2021 and 2020, respectively. The company experienced a reduction in CPE products during 2021 due to the de-emphasis of this product line, which the company expects to continue into 2022. The company experienced a reduction in DOCSIS data products due to reduced demand caused by the pandemic on these products that are used in the hospitality and assisted living environments. The company expects sales of these products to improve during 2022. The company experienced a reduction in analog modulation products due to the continued market shift away from analog modulation solutions. The company experienced a reduction in coax distribution products due to the reduced demand for legacy products. The company expects the sales of analog modulation and coax distribution products to continue to decline in 2022. The company experienced an increase in video encoder transcoder products and next-gen products, as these product lines represent newer products with advanced technologies and higher demand from customers. the company expects sales of these product lines to remain at 2021 levels or increase in 2022, depending on conditions in the semiconductor supply chain. Although the company does not expect overall sales to return to pre-pandemic levels during 2022, the company does expect overall sales to be higher during 2022 due to approximately $10,240,000 of sales backlog at December 31, 2021. The company's primary sources of liquidity have been its existing cash balances, cash generated from operations, amounts available under our mid-cap business credit LLC revolving credit facility, which is the mid-cap facility, amounts available under a subordinated loan facility, and cash generated from sales of our common stock, as well as funds made available to the company through participation and several federally funded funded financial assistance programs implemented pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, including the Paycheck Protection Program and the Employee Retention Tax Credit. On a go-forward basis, the company expects its primary sources of liquidity will be its existing cash balances, cash generated from operations, and amounts available under the MidCap facility. The company also may seek to raise additional capital through the issuance of shares of common stock or other securities convertible into or exercisable for shares of common stock, although the company cannot provide any assurances that this type of additional financing will be available on reasonable terms at all. During 2021, the company received approximately $700,000 under the subordinated loan facility and approximately $492,000 in net proceeds from sales of common stock. Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon our becoming profitable in the future and having access to sufficient capital to execute our business plan and to meet our payment obligations on our debt financing agreements and other financial obligations when they come due. The company had approximately $92,000 and approximately $609,000 available for borrowing under the mid-cap facility as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The company's annual report on Form 10-K, which is being filed today, includes an explanatory paragraph going concern from its independent registered public accounting firm. Although the company has actively taken steps to address operating expenses and liquidity, there could be no assurances that these actions and others that the company intends to take in the future will be sufficient to address the concerns relating to the explanatory paragraph going concern. Now I'd like to turn the call over to the question and answer session.
spk04: Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We ask that while posing your question, you please pick up your handset if listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality.
spk01: Please hold while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Gregory Urban. When the floor is turned over to you, please state your affiliation and pose your question. The floor is yours.
spk05: Good morning. Good morning. As you all know, I'm a private investor. Could you elaborate a bit on the supply chain and how you're managing those issues?
spk03: Sure. Since just before, shortly before the beginning of Q4, uh we started to receive a number of notices sort of one by one from different major suppliers all of which were associated with parts that we had had on order for at least a year under contractual commitments etc but as as as everybody in the electronics industry globally has been seen um you know we're just faced with some unprecedented situations with our suppliers not being able to supply products because of their suppliers and it's been sort of running down through suppliers of our raw materials. The way we've been managing through it is actually, before I jump into that, I do want to kind of paint a broader picture of where the problems are coming from and how they've been shifting over the last roughly six months or so. The problems initiated with the largest sort of highest technology, system on chip, very advanced microprocessor products, price increases on memory, and a broad set of other sort of higher technology problems. Although those have persisted, we have seen some significant improvements in that class of semiconductor, some of which we were able to resolve relatively quickly. through combinations of negotiations, setting relative priorities with our suppliers, cutting back on quantities in exchange for guarantees of a smaller quantity, et cetera, et cetera. So lots of detailed work on that that started back in late August, September last year. As the fourth quarter progressed, we saw the problem start shifting to smaller parts. unusual parts that would normally not have any problems whatsoever things like crystals and power conditioning semiconductors and delays in pcbs because of shortages of copper in southern china i mean all sorts of different things that were kind of coming out of the blue those are the kinds of of issues that that have been persistent through q1 as well So it's really a mixed bag in terms of how we're dealing with it. Every notification and every conversation that we have with our suppliers in these areas tends to be a little bit different because the impacts are different. They impact, you know, we've never had a single notice just, you know, completely impact our entire product line. It's simply a matter of we have a problem with one part, that might cause a problem with us producing one product or two products or three products or one product and several product derivatives. And so we basically just set up the problem, figure out how to attack it, solve it, move on. In some cases, we've been able to find alternative replacements for the raw materials that have shortages. in which case they'll either just go right back onto the current design and we keep producing with, say, a two- or three-week delay, for example. There's been a lot of that. That seems to be generally the bulk of what we've seen. There have been other situations where the alternative parts that we've found that are available will require small, very fast board spins, as we call them. So the design doesn't fundamentally change what we've We've, we've changed a very, very extremely small part of a design to accommodate that alternative part. We get those new boards into the QA, do the testing, and we're back in business in say six, seven, eight weeks, kind of a timeframe. Uh, in some cases there aren't alternative parts and we've had, we've had some situations where a product was not able to be produced for, for sort of in the nine to 10 week range. So that's, that's been the general. sort of scope and scale of what we've seen. So it's very bad news for us, of course. Q4 was significantly impacted, as we've already told you. The good news is if you look at the glass half full kind of view of it, we've certainly seen some of our competitors and other sectors of the electronics industry where products have been delayed six months and seven months and eight months and 10 months. And we have not, we've been able to manage through our problems with a lot less impact in our delay in shipping of products thus far. As I touched on already, the larger, more high technology products that we had the initial problems with were seeing very significant positive movement in those supplies in general, but we remain very very cautious because we're really in a situation here where we keep being surprised every week or two of something else we figure out what the problem is where the problem is coming from we try to solve it in the situation that's associated with that particular product either to work around it find alternate supplies in some cases we've had to move to parts semiconductor parts brokers in different parts of the world that we would not normally deal with. We've had general luck and success with those activities, finding alternate sources. We've moved to alternate parts. And in some cases, as I've already pointed out, we've had to do small, slight redesigns on our printed circuit boards to keep production going with the small delay. So that's the way we're working it. We do see some of our suppliers that had the biggest problems are now confirming uh delivery dates that are a lot more confident going out starting in sort of the september october time frame some have actually resumed shipping products so it's really a broad mixed bag of different situations vendor by vendor and part different parts classes well certainly appreciate the elaboration and i like the numbers of the on the backlog
spk05: Are we going to be able to work that down over what time frame? At 10.2, which I assume, what you tell me, is it roughly the same now as at year end?
spk03: I would only say it has not materially changed. I think the best way to answer that question, Greg, is to say that there's two elements to the backlog. Number one, the fundamental part of it is that we shifted our sales strategy in the early part of last year, taking advantage of the fact that some of our competitors were seeing the supply chain issues hit earlier than us. In some cases, just simply maturing the relationship, the sales relationship we have with some of our customers to extend the PO coverages to longer periods of time. And to put it more specifically, we try to push as many of our largest, most loyal customers into six-month rolling forecasts that are instantiated into purchase orders. And we've had very good success with that since the second quarter of last year. We believe a portion of that kind of a you know, best practice is going to continue even after the supply chain. So in a perfect world, we'd actually retain a fairly significant backlog because what it is is it's representing us having under contract a longer sort of runway of shippable products that the customer will not take until subsequent months. That's a very good thing. That's a portion of that amount. And of course, obviously, there's a healthy portion of that 10.2 million, you know, roughly 10.2 million backlog that we would love to be shipping faster if we only had the parts to build products at a faster clip. So those, you know, ideally in a best case scenario, we start to see some actual material recovery in supply chain later this year. But the problem is we don't have enough broad based feedback from all of our suppliers to really give a high level of confidence of exactly when the timing of a recovery will happen. We just don't. And so because we tend to be a very conservative company as as it relates to prognosticating and giving future, you know, we're we're wishing for and we're planning and we're working to improve the situation as fast as possible. We're planning for the worst case situation as well. So and the truth is going to play out over the coming nine months or a year or however long it takes for the for the overall market recovery to to happen in supply chain semiconductor supply chain uh on on the positive side that does seem as you probably picked up a backlog this big and with all the new product announcements product releases last year we feel really good about the company's prospects um a lot of demand a lot of conversations with new customers we grew customers last year uh large telecommunications and cable operator customers, small ones, a broad-based upswell of new customers. If we just had the parts to build at the level that the demand is at and is growing, we'd be in really good shape, is my opinion.
spk05: Given the supply chain issues, which we talked about in the last call,
spk03: um have you had or have there been layoffs furloughs as we've reported in in well as we discussed in this as we as we released in the press release and we'll elaborate a little bit more in our upcoming um annual report in 10k um we have had to do operational expense reductions that's a broad base of layoffs to as limited of an extent as we can manage while still being 100% confident we can operate the company, build the products, continue R&D, et cetera, and other areas that we found to find more efficiencies in production, more efficiencies in our operations, reduced expenses in terms of services and consulting and other things. It's a broad base, and it has included layoffs, yes.
spk05: All right. And we talked about this last time. The price increases, are those likely to be temporary or permanent going forward?
spk03: Our intention is that they are temporary and that they match the cost of doing business related to our ability to build our products in a timely manner and the competitive environment that's out there. So if there's a silver lining to the whole process of us having to raise prices, it is the fact that all of our competitors have had to do the same from the level of market intelligence that we have. Everybody's being faced with the same problem. For the most part that we've seen, they've responded in the same way that we have, and they've had to raise prices related to their own increasing raw materials costs. Our intention and why I think we were able to generally get our customers to respond, and I think I mentioned this to your question, a similar question last quarter, we were able to convince customers All of our biggest customers, regular customers, all these customers that have moved over to six-month rolling forecasts with purchase orders backing them up, we've convinced them all to take price increases. And we were able to do so pretty rapidly. And part of that process of why we were so successful relatively quickly was we gave assurances that when our costs were coming down, we were not going to sit there and take advantage of the situation. So I think that's – if we want long-term relationships and we want the trust to continue with our customers, we're going to honor that. I can't sit here and tell you how long it's going to take, and I know that there are some parts that may not come down back to their pre-pandemic price levels. So as it relates to those prices remaining high in the future, then we will not go back to the original pricing we had before all of our raw materials went up. But I do expect there – There should be, you would think just rationally, there should be some pullback. We've seen a couple of vendors pull back their prices to, say, 10 or 12 or 15 percent above where they were pre-pandemic, where at the height of the problem for us in later Q4, early Q1, they were asking two times the price for the same product. So, I mean, that's one anecdote of hundreds of parts and hundreds of suppliers, but but it is an indication that there could be some pullback in pricing.
spk05: As a consequence, I assume that margins might be able to maintain margins at the current level.
spk03: Well, our margins in Q4 really took quite a hit for the quarter. Our product mix Our improved product mix for the year is what yielded that just a little under 10% improvement in blended product mix gross margin. Without getting into specifics of how Q1 is coming along because we really don't – our practice is to try to tell you what has happened after it's actually happened as opposed to prognosticating. You know, it's reasonable to think that our price increases across the board and more specifically with the most effective products have yielded some recovery on our product gross margin. I'm cautious to really, you know, project that out in the future because, again, we just keep getting different – surprises related to everything related to supply chain. I mean, just to give you one simple example that just happened, it's in the news, so I'm not really sharing anything confidential at all, is there was a big flare-up of COVID in China in different places, and we had parts that were supposed to ship to us just a few weeks ago, three, four weeks ago, that were in the process of shipping, and they closed all the airports in Shenzhen and other parts of China. And we had parts stranded for two or three weeks. So we could not have predicted that even two or three days before it had happened. And we just had to find out the information, accommodate it, work our production planning around those delays. And it's literally a weekly and other week kind of slog through these kinds of, you know, situations that the whole world is dealing with right now.
spk05: That's really got to try your patience. There can't be a whole lot of fun in that.
spk03: Yes, I totally agree with you, Greg. Thank you for the empathy. All right.
spk02: the borrowing cap now or what is uh how do we stand with mid cap and uh do we have is it anywhere near 90 000 i see at the end of the year is that improved or it it hi this is eric um it fluctuates daily because of the formula so it's really hard to pinpoint how much we have exactly you know at the generally speaking at a month end because of the uh the month end results we generally have a higher amount of availability at the month and then we kind of eat into that as the month goes on. So it ebbs and flows. It has not significantly changed though from year end. On an average basis. On an average basis, correct, yes.
spk05: Right, and that agreement I think ends in September?
spk02: No, October of this year.
spk05: October. Are we looking forward to reworking that and more generally to continue to fund operations other than can you elaborate on what's been presented so far about raising enough cash to continue?
spk02: Well, as far as the mid-cap facility is concerned, as you said, you know, it expires in October. We are working, you know, with them. We haven't actually started the negotiations yet, but we generally do that about, you know, right around now, a little later. And we're going to look at, you know, whoever, as our normal course, we always look at other financing options as well. So once we have something to report, we'll be able to report on it.
spk05: Any, could you say whether we go the equity route or just try to renegotiate with MidCap or someone else? I assume you're looking at both options.
spk02: Well, the equity route would be for additional capital, and we evaluate that on an as-needed basis to determine whether or not we decide we want to go to the market for a private placement or an at-the-market or something like that. But in terms of a general working capital facility, our intent would be to engage with somebody to continue that type of a relationship going forward.
spk05: And I assume, given the way the announcement about the strategic considerations underway, that you won't be able to – we shouldn't expect to hear anything at all on that process?
spk03: Yeah, I can answer that. We put out the announcement because we wanted there to be an understanding by companies that might have an interest to talk to us that we're open to having those discussions. So at this point, that's basically where we're at. And when there is actually anything to report, we'll go public with anything.
spk05: And have you... ongoing discussions or are you just waiting to hear from the exchange about the stock listing, continued stock listing?
spk02: Again, the press release that we put out regarding our delisting notification and our intent to appeal remains the same. When we have something to report, we will report it.
spk05: Is the stockholder equity requirement the main criteria that they're they're looking at that the continued listing hangs in the balance? Is it mainly about the shareholder equity?
spk03: Yes. It is the only criteria that the exchange has discussed with us, yes.
spk05: Okay. Well, it's the same story as we left at last call with the supply chain issues, which is never ending. And I appreciate your work. Like I say, I can't imagine just waiting for the call from wherever to tell you where the next shortage is. But you do your best you can. This is an industry-wide problem, so it's not unique to Blonder. It would be nice to break into the clear at some point. It sure would, yep. Okay. Well, thanks, fellas. Keep up the good work.
spk04: Thank you, Greg. Our next question comes from George Gaspar.
spk06: Yes, good morning. Good morning. I'd like to concentrate a little bit on the recent two releases that you put out on the video transcoder series and your advanced OTT to linear broadcast. In terms of your backlog, being the end of the year was 10.250 range, can you give us a this outline of how fast it's going to be, how long is it going to take to get these two product lines into manufacturing and out in the marketplace going forward. And I assume that you haven't got, there isn't any backlog in these two product lines that's in that $10 million. And so it would have to, influence more the second quarter going forward since we're at the end of the first quarter. Can you give us a little range of how you're approaching this? And then talk also about the product line differentials that you have to get components for. Is it better with these new products or is it just about the same with what you're experiencing across your broader line? Thank you.
spk03: Sure. You're welcome. Thanks, George. So let me break down your questions into different pieces and try to be as efficient as I can to answer them. So we issued a number of press releases on new products and partnerships and certifications recently. Let me talk about the one with DIRECTV first. So this was a press release related to our Clearview transcoder products being certified for deployment in DIRECTV markets and for the same product lines to be approved for DIRECTV dealers to submit as part of their subsidy program. Very, very important press release, very important activity that we've had working with DIRECTV directly over the last year and a half to accomplish. These products actually started being produced and shipped during last year. And the press release lagged the actual activity in the marketplace by some months just due to the normal process of discussing, creating a public awareness of the situation, et cetera. So in fact, the 10.2 or so backlog does include a pretty healthy You know, a nice chunk of that is related to these Clearview products that are going to be shipped into direct TV markets. But that's not, that's far from the only, you know, large elements of our backlog. The other press release that you referred to about a brand new encoder, their Clearview series, encoder as opposed to a transcoder that will support the ability to create video content and audio content that can be streamed over the open internet or in internet formats on private networks, etc. These are products that are destined for most normally people like large and small cable operators, telecommunications companies, large and small And even into smaller markets such as houses of worship for their internet broadcast of religious services or distance learning, business uses, etc. So there's a broad range of use cases for these products. We expect those products, as we said in the press release, to be shipping in approximately 10 to 12 to 14 week kind of range. from when the press release came out. The biggest one of those products is called the Clearview HD2X product, and then we're going to have some other derivatives of that product as well for going after niche markets. In terms of the supply chain issues, the biggest problems we've had, the largest problems we've had in terms of how product or ability to build a product has mapped into supply chain. It is unfortunately the biggest impact has been in the newest, most, you know, high technology product. So even though we have a big increase in those product shipments last year, as we reported, they could have been quite a bit larger if it had not been for the supply chain situations. They are, they are the biggest products being impacted by these shifting, um, Shifting supply chain issues. And I think I hit all your points. Did I miss anything?
spk06: Okay, well, in terms of looking ahead on this, in terms of marketing these new product lines, is there a broader market for them? Or do you have to get into a totally different level of connections to sell your products on these? Or is it pretty much the same customer line, so to speak?
spk03: No, from our perspective, it's really the same customer base if you include our very, very long and healthy relationships with a wide range of distributors. We use our distributors as sales channels for the smaller sort of integrators and other kinds of uses that are out there for our products. Our own independent internal sales team tend to focus on managing those sales channels with distributors and a separate set of people that focus on large service operators and small service operators, whether they be cable, fiber optic, or telephone, traditional telco companies.
spk06: I see. And then one last adventure into this particular area. When you talk to customers that are – buying these products I'm sure that they're anxious to get them and you've got your product components to be concerned about do you ever reach out to any of your customers and say help us get products give us some ideas or whatever or is that something that you don't do we would not normally do that because
spk03: Our customers would typically not have the relationships necessary to help us with semiconductor raw materials supply chain. Their supply chain would be companies like Launder Tunnel Apps or other companies that are producing finished products. There have been a couple of examples where some of our larger customers in the cable operator space have actually said, hey, we have a relationship with those guys that you're having a problem with, maybe we can reach out. And we've taken them up on it, of course, but it has not yielded any better improvement in anything versus what we've been able to do ourselves.
spk06: Yes. Okay. And just an observation, I'm closing from my point of view. These recent developments that you've introduced I think are setting your outlook up for more positive things to happen. And it would seem to me that you are definitely expressing to the marketplace an ability to recognize what you have to do to expand, and you're right in the middle of accomplishing it. And it would seem to me that that will help you in trying to generate the funding necessary to keep your company safe and moving ahead and start to broaden its opportunity to really expand going forward. It just seems to me like with all the technology that Blondertongue represents and expanding that this would be pretty exciting for people who are looking for things to happen in a company that's got a broad future in front of it. So hopefully this all really starts to come together in the next few quarters. Thank you.
spk03: I certainly share your sentiments, and I'm personally optimistic about the future, but as we've said, we have some challenges to get through and the uncertainty related to the whole supply chain situation, some areas improving, some not, some getting worse, things coming in from left field. It's just very difficult for us to try to give a reasonable specifics on the outlook and the timing of when we think things will improve. In terms of the overall strategy, how the strategy is resonating with our customers, the release of new products, the kind of relationships we're having with big partners and big customers, those have all been very, very positive over the last year.
spk04: Sir, there appear to be no further questions in queue. Do you have any closing comments you'd like to finish with?
spk03: No, I just want to thank everybody for continuing to support Blunderton Laboratories, and we look forward to talking to everyone at the next quarter's earnings call.
spk01: Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day.
spk04: Thank you for your participation.
Disclaimer