iRobot IPO vs. WowWee's Pseudo IPO

iRobot (IRBT) had about $76 million in cash after its IPO in 2005, which was priced at $24.00 per share for approximately 23.4 million shares.

After WowWee's pseudo reverse merger into Optimal Group, Inc. (OPMR), and OPMR’s Optimal Payments subsidiary assets sales, OPMR will likely have significantly more cash than what IRBT had after its IPO, about the same number of shares [with OPMR’s share buyback], and about the same revenue [$142 million revenue for IRBT in 2005 vs. WowWee 2008E revenue of $130 to $140 million].

Both companies are in the Personal Robotics market, anticipated to grow to $15 billion by 2015. WowWee’s Rovio telepresence robot competes directly with IRBT’s ConnectR telepresence robot.

• IRBT IPO: $24.00 per share.
• WowWee Pseudo IPO: $2.63 per share (as currently priced by the market).

Do ya think the market might have misplaced a decimal somewhere?

Disclosure: Long OPMR

Comments

[Badger The ...:]

An interview of the inventor responsible for WowWee's Robotics product line, discussing the future of telepresence robots and a full-size protype that he is working with is at:
superstreng.no/media/s...

FemiSapien is now in stock at Amazon.com www.amazon.com/Wow-Wee...

2008 Aug 24 12:47 PM

[mkreisel:]

Looks like you need to find some bagholders here?

2008 Aug 24 01:09 PM

[123pescao:]

Your comparison between WowWee and iRobot is misguidedly incomplete without mention of iRobot's military (Packbot ) and Home maintenance (Roomba) Products back in 2005. Not to mention that the ConnectR is one of a few new Products for iRobot since 2005 (Scooba, SUGV, Warrior, Verro, Looge...). You are comparing apples and oranges at widely different points in their respective timelines. This is a piece of very shallow reporting that can only serve you're own purposes, if you have any.

2008 Aug 25 08:54 AM

[JFrazer1:]

iRobot has robots to clean your pools, to clean your gutters, to vacuum your house, to mop your floor, to sweep your shop, to keep an eye on your kid, to defuse bombs, for military recon, and for public safety professional recon.

These are useful, cost effective utility-bots. They do dull, dirt, dangerous things, chores that people would rather avoid, for a pretty low price. WowWee has a small line up of expensive toys. Besides, have you seen the Rovio? It's freaking scary.

With immigrant labor harder to find and upper middle class households no longer able to afford housekeepers, and the growing strain on the military and increased need for surveillance, there will be a lot of demand for these products that iRobot develops.

The author disclosed he is long OPMR. Is he also one of the many people short IRBT? The article seems extremely biased. Kick-back biased.

2008 Aug 27 08:18 AM