Category Archives: Fiscal Freedom

On November 25, 2010, this newspaper threw down the gauntlet to the Westminster elite sending shockwaves along the corridors of power by declaring on our front page that it was time for the United Kingdom to quit the EU and that we would, from that day on, devote our campaigning energies to securing just such an outcome.

At first it was just a tiny band of independent-minded, patriotic backbench MPs who offered us support. As one of them, Wellingborough Tory MP Peter Bone, noted: I remember walking up Downing Street to deliver the Daily Express petition to the Prime Minister. It has carried on campaigning, set the standard and the other papers followed.

Former Labour MP Kate Hoey, another who helped us deliver an enormous petition from Daily Express readers to David Cameron in 10 Downing Street early in 2011, added: The Express has been the only paper that has consistently stood up as the voice of the people.

The rapid progress our campaign made was demonstrated in October 2011, when 111 MPs including 81 Tories who rebelled against Mr Camerons three-line whip voted in favour of a motion calling for an In-Out EU referendum.

And at the end of January 2013 by which time well over half a million Daily Express readers had signed campaign coupons and online petitions as our movement spread like wildfire Cameron was forced to eat his words by promising an In-Out referendum would indeed be held were he to be returned as prime minister at the 2015 election.

What had been initially depicted as an aim of cranks and gadflies turned out to be so popular that it helped Cameron win a majority at that election, leaving him with no option but to deliver the referendum he had initially been so reluctant to embrace. And we all know what happened next. The establishment weighted the scales in its own favour by means of a taxpayer-funded Remain propaganda leaflet delivered to every door and by co-opting senior public servants into its Project Fear effort to scare the public into staying under the control of Brussels. And still the British people voted to leave.

Far from being a cause believed in only by a Right-wing fringe, Brexit was shown to be the overall wish of the British people, with 17.4 million adults voting for it the most ever to vote for any single proposition in the entire history of our country.

The desire to control our own immigration system was undoubtedly a major factor and so were public qualms at the growing cost of EU membership. But the most fundamental reason was never in doubt the desire of a proud country to become a sovereign, nation state democracy once again.

Since the original referendum on the Common Market in 1975, the true aim of elites across Europe to create a superstate via a gradual salami-slicing away of national sovereignty had become harder and harder to conceal.

A succession of EU treaties that took more and more power away from member states and transferred it to Brussels were passed without the British people being asked for permission in a further referendum; the treaties of Maastricht, Nice, Amsterdam and finally Lisbon.

The Lisbon Treaty of 2008 was key because it gave the EU the legal personality of a state and awarded the bloc the power to abolish further national vetoes. While ministers in the then Labour government tried to dismiss it as a mere tidying-up exercise, the British people clocked that it marked an irreversible step towards full political integration under the rule of the unelected European Commission.

Mr Cameron pledged, no ifs, or buts, that he would hold a referendum on it, should he make it to Downing Street. But in November 2009, he reneged on that promise.

Because, he said, the treaty had been already ratified by the Labour government, a future Tory administration would not put it to the people.

It was in the ensuing public uproar that the seeds for our campaign were planted. Enough was enough. Someone had to stand up and be counted and fight for the freedom and independence of Britain.

Accommodations with Brussels that involved specific British opt-outs on things like the single currency and the Schengen borderless zone were no longer sufficient.

With plans for an EU army already being pushed and the eurozone countries planning a full fiscal union that would have a controlling majority in all the key EU institutions, it was obvious that the ambition for ever closer union set out in the founding Treaty of Rome was no longer a federalist pipe dream, but the inevitable destination of this project.

Well, not any longer. Not for the United Kingdom at least. Because our proud thousand-year history of taking our own decisions about life on our islands, our independent spirit and our wish to connect with other countries, not merely in Europe, but also via the Anglosphere and the Commonwealth, proved too strong.

It may very well be in the years ahead that the example set by Britain of affinity and fidelity to the nation state over the superstate is taken up elsewhere in Europe and that other countries follow our lead. That will be made more likely if we make a success of Brexit.

For the rest of the year we will, of course, be stuck in a transition phase and effectively still bossed about by Brussels in many aspects of life while Britain and the EU hammer out the details of a future relationship.

But the Prime Minister is clear on the trajectory the country is set on. And a political misadventure instigated by the pro-Brussels fanatic Edward Heath 47 years ago is finally coming to an end.

As yet another Tory prime minister might have put it: Just rejoice at that news.

Read more:

Brexit at last rejoice, finally we have our freedom, says PATRICK OFLYNN - Express

OSAKA -- At least a combined 386 hectares of private forests that were logged illegally in 858 cases across Japan had yet to be regrown as of March 2018, the Mainichi Shimbun has found.

Owners of private forests are required under the Forest Act to notify local governments of any logging, but did not do so in the 858 cases. It is believed to be the first time that the scale of deforestation without notice across the country has been clarified.

In at least one of the cases, a landslide occurred on a piece of land that was left exposed after being logged.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is striving to transform forestry into a growing industry, but the finding suggests that local bodies do not have the capacity to keep tabs on logging at privately owned forests under their jurisdiction.

The Mainichi Shimbun filed a freedom of information request with the Forestry Agency to obtain internal documents that the country's 47 prefectural governments had submitted on the logging of both natural and planted privately owned forests. It then tallied the number of cases in which the prefectural governments reported that illegally logged forests had not been replanted as of the end of fiscal 2017, as well as the total areas of these forests.

The northeastern prefecture of Miyagi had particularly extensive forests that remained abandoned after being logged -- 213 hectares in 679 cases. Mie Prefecture in central Japan followed with 52 hectares in 43 cases, while in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido there were 26 hectares in 11 cases. The central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka had 25 hectares that remained unaddressed in nine cases of logging without permission.

In contrast, 21 prefectures where forestry is thriving, including Tokyo and the northeastern prefectures of Iwate and Miyazaki have no such forests.

However, the actual scale of such abandoned forests could be much larger as the agency may have failed to grasp the whole picture due to a shortage of personnel in charge at local governments.

Privately owned forests are defined as those owned by private individuals and organizations and those owned by public organizations such as local governments.

Statistics on forests and the forestry industry show that an estimated 73,508 hectares of privately owned forests across the country were logged in fiscal 2017.

According to the Forestry Agency, the yearly number of notices on logging submitted to municipalities across the country has hovered around 60,000 over the past several years. Meanwhile, the agency confirmed only 19 cases of logging without notice across the nation between fiscal 2011 and 2017.

As part of efforts to turn forestry into a growth sector, the Abe government is promoting efficient logging of privately owned forests. In 2018, a new law regulating the management of forestry business was enacted. Under this policy, municipalities are commissioned by forest owners to integrate and manage privately owned forests and then farm out the management of potentially profitable forests to "enthusiastic and capable" business operators.

(Japanese original by Takeshi Terada, Osaka Special Reports Department)

Go here to read the rest:

Over 380 hectares of illegally logged private forests in Japan remain abandoned: data - The Mainichi

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The sad truth is that global economic stability and growth, including for India, now depend on the unstable predilections of a global party-pooper, who is the President of the United States till at least the third quarter of FY 2021. The International Monetary Fund has said as much, albeit in diplomatese not surprising as the United States remains its major shareholder.

This is not to say we have not had problems at home since the end of FY 2018. First the illness and then the tragic demise of one of the BJPs tallest economic assets the suave, Lutyens-friendly Arun Jaitley hit the government hard as officialdom quickly disintegrated into chaos in the absence of skilled political economic leadership.

The government has been firefighting since FY 2019 using mostly Band-Aids of the cheapest kinds. This is fine for temporary spells of uncertainty or instability. But to reverse a three-year-long slowdown requires something more than big ideas unsupported by implementation capacity and undermined by worsened political adventurism in the garb of economic policy.

First, a finance minister simply cannot function with less operational freedom and discretion that any of our six Army commanders. Make no mistake. We have been in a losing economic war since FY 2018.

When desk-bound New Delhi-based generals have not listened to Army commanders in the past, the results have been dire, like our rout in 1962 after a short skirmish with China. Diffident decentralisation of authority partly explains our recent inability to respond appropriately to the economic stress we have been exposed to.

The political-economy instincts of Piyush Goyal are sound and becoming better by the day. He had no option but to present the FY 2020 Budget proposals in February last, appropriately retaining the virtual slippers of the absent Arun Jaitley on the FMs chair, as Bharat did during the absence of Lord Ram.

Similarly, Nirmala Sitharaman, who followed Piyush Goyal, has the makings of a fine FM. But being junior in the BJP hierarchy, she is constrained from charting an independent, cohesive path for growth with stability.

The result is that brave targets think a $5 trillion economy by 2024 or doubling of farmers incomes; systematically important schemes think PM Kisan Samman for transfer of direct benefits, More crop per drop or liberalising agriculture from domestic market and export restraints, have failed to take root.

Well-intentioned executive action think ending corruption, controlling tax terrorism, reducing subsidies to PSUs or deep reform of public sector banks and systematically important insurance and pension funds have got diluted during implementation possibly due to the influence of pressure groups. Only the Prime Minister can stem this rot.

Second, dealing with a fiscal crisis requires a focused and funded agenda to unlock economic potential in the near term. Nothing we have heard publicly, thus far, convinces us that the government is even near a magic bullet for FY 2021.

A mish mash of Band-Aid type solutions exist or are hinted at deep corporate tax cuts but with no matching tax cuts for individuals or rationalisation of GST rates. Both force small business to opt for hara-kiri because of the very high tax threshold preventing them from joining the formal tax-compliant economy.

Enhanced outlays on prestige projects, disguised as infra spend statues, grand new government offices and more museums, as paens to our past glories ignore the reality that the real value of infra spend comes from the stream of future additional annual economic value as happens when a bridge is built over a congested river crossing.

Fiscal firefighting like slashing spend in the last quarter to 25 per cent of the Budget or asking the RBI to again fork out 40 per cent more than the budgeted `1 trillion is unavoidable.

But the proposal of the N.K. Singh-led Finance Commission to roll back the progressive devolution of Central taxes to states introduced by the earlier Y.V. Reddy Finance Commission from the existing 42 per cent to 32 per cent is retrogressive.

A continued allegiance to fetishes like fiscal deficit being reduced to two per cent of GDP as a performance metric from the Jaitley years reflects moribund reflexes.

Rectitude, fiscal or otherwise, is a good thing. But even the most prudent athlete takes permissible performance enhancing drugs if he/she is feeling down. The ongoing demand recession is an outcome of the slowdown caused by the big disruption by ex-RBI governor Raghuram Rajan in the chummy way business was done, leading the switch to responsible bank lending, uniform norms for recognition of financial stress and recovery of bank funds through foreclosure of debt-ridden corporations.

Fiscal loosening is necessary to transfer income to the common man to substitute for lost income, lost jobs or lower business returns. Unlike the rich who tend to save during windfalls the richest expatriate these to safe havens overseas the poor consume windfall income thereby aiding in reviving demand.

The fiscal cost can be reduced by combining it with ending the direct subsidy to the fertiliser industry, ending subsidy on cooking gas and the wasteful food procurement and supply programme which cost around `3 trillion, or 1.5 per cent of the GDP. Cost-based tariffs for irrigation and electricity supply can recover another 0.5 per cent of GDP wasted by state governments on subsidising these production inputs.

Organised industry and big farmers the major recipients of direct and indirect subsidies have grown fat at the expense of the government treasury in the name of the poor. Transferring money directly to the poor will be more sustainable, more efficient and carbon footprint sensitive because it will decrease fertiliser, water and electricity consumption without loss of productivity due to the price incentive to conserve.

The government must become a transparently, financially prudent investor and junk infrastructure projects with low social returns. Are social returns even calculated today? And if so, by whom? And why is this data not available to the public?

Winning an economic war is all about operational smarts and not high intellect. But just good intentions are never enough. Without any demonstrated commitment to allocate public capital in an economically moral manner, dwindling political gains can be expected.

This commentary originally appeared in The Asian Age.

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See the article here:

New thinking is needed, band-aids wont suffice - Observer Research Foundation

SANTA ANA Jan 31, 2020 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Identiv Inc earnings conference call or presentation Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 10:00:00pm GMT

Identiv, Inc. - CFO & Secretary

Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director

Good afternoon. Welcome to Identiv's presentation of preliminary Q4 and fiscal year 2019 results. My name is Savis, and I will be your operator this afternoon.

Joining us for today's presentation are the company's CEO, Steve Humphreys; and CFO, Sandra Wallach. Following management's remarks, we will open the call for questions.

Before we begin, please note that during this call, management may be making references to non-GAAP measures or projections, including adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

In addition, during the call, management will be making forward-looking statements. Any statement that refers to expectations, projections or other characteristics of future events, including financial projections and future market conditions, is a forward-looking statement. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in documents filed from time to time with the SEC, including the company's latest annual report on Form 10-K. Identiv assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which speak as of today.

I will now turn the call over to CEO, Steve Humphreys, for his comments. Sir, please proceed.

Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [2]

Thanks, operator, and thank you all for joining us today. As you all have seen, today, we announced our preliminary results for the fiscal year and fourth quarter 2019 as well as our updated outlook for 2020.

Now in 2019, we established our complete security platform across access systems, video analytics, mobility, credentials and RFID. In the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, our Thursby business had $1 million-plus deployments. In the third quarter of 2019, our Premises products grew 38% year-over-year. And in our most recent quarter, our RFID products grew 62% year-over-year. So clearly, there's strength in every product line and in the total solution.

But this last quarter, our revenues came in well below what we expected. Usually, we've been able to balance quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in one area of strength than others, but that fell far short in the fourth quarter and really interrupted the path we've built towards profitability and consistent growth. And despite that, we continue to see strength in our markets and our products, so we're confident we're positioned for long-term growth, but as a public company, we can't tolerate unpredictability on the top line while we're getting to scale. We, as a team, are very disappointed that it happened. Our responsibility to our investors, our customers and our people is to build predictable, profitable growth and to create a very valuable, strategically positioned company.

We fell behind on that commitment last quarter, and we've taken the lessons from the quarter and are applying them to get back on a predictable, profitable business path. So today, I'll address 3 topics. What happened and why? What are we doing about it? And what does this mean for our business in the short and long term?

So first, what happened and why did it happen? Our fourth quarter revenues were impacted in 4 areas. First, the federal government fell behind on their acquisition plan because of the continuing resolution that carried right up to the end of the year. As a result, about $1 million of Thursby software deals and about $3 million of federal government Premises business didn't close as we expected. Now none of the business was lost as far as we know, but with the federal government churn, the budget churn, we overestimated how quickly business would close.

A second factor just came up in the last couple of weeks. One of our major customers in Mexico has been affected by the slowing Mexican economy. As they've indicated to us concerns about their ability to pay invoices, we decided to remove a large order from our accounts to make sure there's no collectibility issue in the future, and this pulled down revenues by an additional $0.5 million.

The third factor that slowed closes is right at the end of the year. We launched 2 new recurring revenue initiatives late in the quarter, our Velocity Cirrus cloud-based SaaS security platform and our subscription-based mobile app for digitally encrypted PDF signing for the Defense Department. Now these are both very positive for our business in the long run, but with Thursby in particular, instead of the large, upfront licensing deals we had in the fourth quarter of 2018, we're now receiving monthly and annual subscription revenues. And this model is great for our ongoing business and customers love the ease of adoption, but it means we didn't have a big contributor to both revenues and gross margin like the 20,000-plus onetime Thursby licenses we delivered in the fourth quarter of 2018. Similarly, in the Premises business, some of our customers saw the launch of Cirrus and wanted to assess it. We think we're getting through that, but it all impacted the fourth quarter.

Now another example of this effect is the win we announced just last week to provide cloud-based emergency electronic mustering via our Freedom Cloud Access Control as a Service platform for a large Canadian pipeline project. This, again, is cloud-based RMR, the right platform for our business and for growing recurring revenues, but in the near term, it takes a major system sale and spreads the revenues over time.

And the fourth challenge we ran into was not expanding our sales team as fast as we planned. Our goal was to nearly double our sales team, but we fell behind on hiring while also driving the business because it's particularly hard to get good salespeople at year-end. And once they finish out their year and get year-end payouts, they get much more willing to move. So we've made 0.5 dozen offers just in the past 2 weeks, but we were behind on sales hiring throughout the fourth quarter.

This revenue shortfall is particularly frustrating because growing our monthly RMR is exactly where we want to go, we're building our sales team to drive growth, and our results clearly don't reflect the strength across the business. For example, year-over-year, we expanded non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA by 17% even with lower-than-expected revenues. We delivered positive non-GAAP free cash flow for the full year as well. Our backlog has increased going into this year, 36% from the same time last year and 80% from the same time in 2018. And we've already capitalized on some of this operating momentum, including booking more than $2 million of new business in the first week of January alone.

Now what it all this adds up to is our need to get to great scale. The more we scale the business, the more resilient we become to seasonality and differing growth rates in our product segments. We made progress with our 3 acquisitions a year ago, but the shortfalls at the end of 2019 clearly showed that we're not at the level we need to deliver consistent results and to balance the transition to more recurring revenues.

So that's what happened and why. Before I go into more detail about what we've done to address these issues and why we're positive about the business' future, I'm going to turn the call over to Sandra to walk us through the financial details so there's more context for the actions we're taking and for our outlook. Sandra?

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Sandra Wallach, Identiv, Inc. - CFO & Secretary [3]

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Thanks, Steve.

Based on preliminary, unaudited results, we expect total revenues for the fiscal year 2019 to range between $83.5 million and $83.6 million. This revenue range includes a reserve of $0.5 million related to a 3VR shipment in Q4 2019 to a Mexican-based financial institution, which lowered our revenue for Q4 and total year 2019. Last week, we received new information from this customer regarding their anticipated economic uncertainty, and we have, therefore, fully reserved their shipments until there's more clarity from the customer. This range compares to total revenues of $78.1 million for the total year 2018. This represents a 7% growth year-over-year. Additionally, without the 23% reduction in our Access Cards business as we have continued on our previously disclosed strategy to lower -- to exit lower-margin third-party products, our consolidated growth was up 14% year-over-year.

Standalone software and services revenue comprised 13% of total revenue in 2019, up 207 basis points over 2018. Recurring revenue accounted for 9% of total revenue in 2019, up 117 basis points over 2018.

GAAP gross margin for the year 2019 is expected to be 44% compared with GAAP gross margin of 43% in 2018. GAAP net loss attributable to Identiv, Inc. for the 2019 year is expected to range between negative $1.5 million and $1.4 million or negative $0.15 to negative $0.14 per basic and diluted share. This compares to GAAP net loss attributable to Identiv, Inc. of negative $4.7 million or negative $0.35 per share basic and diluted for 2018.

Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for 2019 is expected to range between $6.6 million and $6.7 million. This compares to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $5.7 million for 2018.

We expect positive cash flow from operations for the full year 2019 to range between $0.5 million and $0.6 million and non-GAAP free cash flow for the same period to range between $0.2 million to $0.3 million, an improvement from negative non-GAAP free cash flow of negative $6.5 million in 2018. 2019 represents the first full year in over a decade where we were able to generate non-GAAP free cash flow.

Now turning to the fourth quarter. Based on preliminary unaudited results, we expect total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2019 to range between $18.7 million and $18.8 million. The fourth quarter revenue includes the reserve of $0.5 million related to a 3VR shipment during Q4 2019, as discussed earlier. This compares to total revenues of $21.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.

GAAP gross margins for the fourth quarter of 2019 are expected to be 39%. This compares to GAAP gross margin of 48% in the fourth quarter of 2018. This change in gross margin was primarily driven by differences in segment mix as well as a $2.5 million deployment of Thursby software solutions with gross margins in excess of 70%, which was recognized in Q4 2018.

GAAP net loss attributable to Identiv, Inc. for the fourth quarter of 2019 is expected to range between negative $2.2 million and negative $2.1 million or negative $0.14 to $0.13 per basic and diluted share. This compares to net income attributable to Identiv Inc. of $0.6 million or negative $0.01 per share basic and diluted in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2019 is expected to range between $0 million and $0.1 million. This compares to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $3.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.

We have not yet completed the preparation of our financial statements for the quarter or year ended December 31, 2019, nor has the audit of our financial statements been completed. The preliminary, unaudited financial results included in our press release and referenced on this call are based on current expectations and are subject to adjustment. Actual results may vary materially from those disclosed in our press release and referenced on this call. Complete audited financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019 will be released in March 2020.

In addition, we have entered into our 12th amendment of our loan and security agreement with East West Bank. This amendment to the agreement retains the total credit of $20 million, but it includes a $4.5 million term loan component for a 12-month period and lowers the revolving credit line to $15.5 million. The composition of the loan and security agreement was modified to provide us with additional flexibility to fund our short-term growth. Additional details of the amended loan and security agreement are included in a Form 8-K, which was filed today.

With top line results for 2019, we believe it's prudent to update our guidance for the full year 2020. We now expect total revenues to range between $86 million and $90 million, which would represent an increase of 5% comparing the midpoint of both the company's updated guidance and preliminary results for 2019. Additionally, without the 8% reduction projected in our Access Card business as we have continued on our strategy previously disclosed to exit the lower-margin third-party products, our total growth assumed in our new guidance is expected to be 7% year-over-year.

Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between $10 million and $11 million, which would represent a minimum increase of 58% comparing the midpoint of both the company's updated guidance and preliminary results for 2019. Included in our updated guidance is our commitment to keep expenses relatively flat year-over-year. This will be achieved by strategically shifting resources to our higher-growth, customer-facing areas.

GAAP net income attributable to Identiv, Inc. is expected to range between $2 million and $3 million and earnings per basic share to range between $0.06 and $0.12. We also anticipate being non-GAAP cash -- free cash flow positive for the full year of 2020.

With that, I'll turn it back over to Steve.

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Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [4]

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Thanks, Sandra. So despite our underlying business strength, we clearly came in well short of where we expected. So what are we doing about it?

First, we've already taken out a layer of sales management across the board to focus our sales investment on direct, quota-carrying salespeople. As a result, communication from our individual salespeople now goes directly to our business leaders who all report directly to me. So now every direct salesperson throughout the company is only one step from the CEO. This helps keep expectations aligned with reality and also brings resources to bear more quickly to move business through the sales cycle faster. And we took these actions in the first 2 weeks of this month.

Second, we're reorganizing our sales teams to have smaller regions and more focused product responsibilities. This will help drive both SaaS and system sales. The result is that even while taking expense actions, which I'll go through in a moment, we're nearly doubling our sales and SE team and structuring them to be more focused to drive growth.

The third, as I just mentioned, we're implementing cost-alignment measures while continuing the aggressive hiring in sales. And we've got the products and infrastructure to a good point so we can be more efficient in operations, G&A and engineering. As a result, when we finish our cost-realignment actions, we expect to have implemented about $4 million of cost savings on an annualized basis.

So to be clear, we're reducing total expenses while substantially increasing the size and focus of our sales team. Within this expanded sales team, we're specializing. Selling SaaS services is different from selling systems. Selling the full value of video also needs focus. So on our expanded sales team, we're building in specialization to make sure we're aggressively selling all of our products and services.

We've also brought on a Sales Operations Director, whose team is supporting the field sales team and coordinating revenue forecasting, planning, tracking and management daily. This team is also launching demand-generation programs, tracking dealer and channel coverage and managing pipelines across all of our business.

So we've already taken action to improve our pipeline and forecasting. However, to accelerate growth and profitability, we've got to get more scale. As we mentioned in the press release, the independent directors of the Board have launched a Board initiative to explore strategic alternatives to enhance stockholder value. They started a process to retain an independent financial adviser to help look at strategic alternatives to help us get to scale and maximize shareholder value. So we're not where we wanted to be, but the market is very strong and our position leading and taking share in the market remains solid.

Even in the face of the challenges we've just had, we're building our business stronger than ever. We're expanding and specializing our sales force. We've launched our SaaS cloud platforms for Velocity and Freedom. We've launched our first subscription-priced mobile app. We're launching our Bluetooth reader and frictionless mobile app. And there's more, but this gives you an idea of how aggressively we're going after the market, all while we're tightening expenses and getting more EBITDA leverage from our top line.

So additionally, to show our commitment and our belief in the company's opportunity and also to minimize uses of cash, of course, as described in our 8-K filing, I will be taking all of my take-home pay in stock only. Now I'm sure of the opportunity here, so it's not altruism to take my compensation in stock. I think it's a great value. Similarly, all of our independent directors are doing the same, taking their Board compensation all in shares.

So despite a rough fourth quarter, we know what happened and we've taken actions to address the root causes and to put the business on a stronger footing. The opportunities ahead of us remain strong. We exited 2019 with our RFID business up 62% for the quarter and our Premises business up 20% for the year. Our EBITDA is up 17% year-over-year and we're projecting an additional 58% growth in EBITDA for 2020 with solidly achievable targets. We've entered 2020 with a strong backlog, a focus on recurring revenue launches and sales expansion, and our interests are completely aligned with our shareholders and other stakeholders to drive the business forward predictably and profitably to create and realize our business' full value.

So with that, I'd like to open the discussion to questions.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Mike Latimore with Northland Capital Markets.

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Michael James Latimore, Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [2]

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Great. So Steve, just on the federal government. Was the -- were the delays there sort of across the board? Or was there one agency in particular? And then kind of how do you think about the effects of kind of continuing resolutions as we head into 2020 year?

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Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [3]

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Yes, good question. It was several agencies. It wasn't one in particular. And it was our integrators, which, of course, is where we get the orders directly from, Johnson Control and companies like that. And it was slow-moving through them as well as the agency demand.

I think the government is going to be catching up at least for several more months. I hope there won't be uncertainty caused by the election and budget processes there, but we'll just have to wait and see on that. But we see it getting back on a more normal basis but still definitely playing some catch-up at least for a little while.

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Michael James Latimore, Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [4]

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And then the backlog comments being up 36%, I guess can you remind us -- I guess, one, is I assume that is affected somewhat by the delays here perhaps, but also, can you remind us like how much does backlog matter in terms of, like, an upcoming quarter?

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Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [5]

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Yes. So we typically come into the quarter with about 1/4 of our quarter in backlog. So obviously, that's indicating that we're stronger than that in this case. And then typically -- I won't walk you through all the gory details again, but then typically, another 50% of our revenues is from long-term contracts, long-term deployments. They're not officially backlog, but they're things we have visibility to. Hence, the 25% remaining that we have to fund and close. But some of the shortfall was related to both of those second categories, some of them that were ongoing contracts and deployments that came through contracting slower and then also the new deals in closing.

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Michael James Latimore, Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [6]

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Got it. And then just on the EBITDA guidance for '20, obviously growing a lot faster than revenue. I think you talked about $4 million -- focused $4 million reduction. Is that -- I didn't quite pick it up. Is that across the board? Is that more in R&D? Where is that focused?

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Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [7]

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It's more in the non-sales and marketing and then -- and noncustomer-facing -- not more. It's only in noncustomer-facing functions. So no effect on tech support, sales, SEs, professional services, any of that.

And to be clear, we had planned growth in our overall expenses. And now basically, we'll be holding them flat to a little bit down. So it's not like we're doing -- not like we have to do a major deep cut in there. We can do a lot of things that we should do anyway to properly align resources and focus on customers and do some redeployment, which is, as I mentioned, we're already doing in sales.

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Michael James Latimore, Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [8]

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Got it. And just last question, you may not want to give it now in the preliminary results here, but revenue segments, do you have Premise versus Identity in the quarter?

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Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [9]

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In terms of the revenue numbers? We do.

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Michael James Latimore, Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [10]

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Yes. Those 2 segments in the quarter, yes.

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Steven Humphreys, Identiv, Inc. - CEO & Director [11]

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Edited Transcript of INVE earnings conference call or presentation 30-Jan-20 10:00pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

The UCP government has launched its $90-million tax credit for companies to make their movies in Alberta.

Its a program that has meet with scorn from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Maxing out at $10 million a movie, the Film and Television Tax Creditprogram will give productions a refundable tax credit to help cover Alberta production and labour costs

Applicants may be eligible for either a 22 per cent or 30 per cent tax credit for productions that are Alberta owned, the government said in a Wednesday release.

We want our province to be a destination that attracts talent, investment and business from across Canada and around the globe. This credit, combined with our low tax environment and breathtaking landscapes, makes Alberta an attractive destination for big-budget television and film projects that inject millions into our economy and create jobs for Albertans, said Minister of Economic Development and Tourism Tanya Fir.

The tax credit has already met with some corporate approval.

Disney has a long history of creating content in Alberta. We are pleased to see that the Alberta government is launching a film and television tax credit and we look forward to working with them to continue to create stunning content using Albertas landscapes and crews. said MaryAnn Hughes, vice president, production and investment planning for the Walt Disney Company. Her statement was provided within in the government release.

But Franco Terrazzano, Alberta director of the CTA, said Wednesday Premier Jason Kenney has better things to spend taxpayers money on.

Jason Kenney has a $70-billion debt to deal with. Why is Minister Fir running around playing investment banker risking taxpayers money, Terrazzano told the Western Standard.

Stop it with this nonsense. The government has to get out of the business of being in business.

The governments has pledged to grow Albertas cultural industries by 25 per cent over the next decade.

The previous NDP government had capped their provincial film grant program at $7.5-million.

The UCP budget in October said new money for film tax credits will be $15 million in the 2020-21 fiscal year, $30 million in 2021-22 and $45 million in 2022-23.

Some Alberta film produces are worried $90 million over four years isnt nearly enough.

QUICK FACTS

Every year, Alberta graduates more than 3,000 creative industry professionals from its post-secondary institutions. According to industry estimates, more than 3,200 Albertans are employed in the provinces motion picture and video industry. According to Statistics Canada data: Every $1 million of production activity in the screen-based production sector creates about 13 Alberta jobs. Every $1 million of government investment under the Film and Television Tax Credit program is expected to support about 60 Alberta jobs.

Facts from the Alberta government

Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard

dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com

Twitter: Nobby7694

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Former Alberta WEXIT leader joins Freedom Conservative Party - Western Standard

Tshering Dorji

If the countrys economy is a gun, it has three triggers to fire the bullet.

This is the analogy of spike in the economic growth triggered periodically and by investments in hydropower, public expenditure (which relates to the five year planning period) and by growth in domestic credit.

This is according to the governor of the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), Dasho Penjore.

Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tshering, a health professional at the helm of governance is scanningn these irregular growth spikes.

When there are too many spikes in the electrocardiogram (ECG) of a patient, chances of heart failure is more, Lyonchhen said.

One of the spikes, which is not quite obvious is the transition between end of one Plan and the beginning of the other. This, he said must change to fuel a sustainable economic growth.

The context here is that the country has experienced lowest economic growth after the end of every governments tenure and it became more conspicuous after the onset of democracy.

For instance, the four-year low GDP growth of about three percent was attributed to cessation in capital expenditure for more than six months during the election period. The whole planning process must change. When the software of electronic devices like phones and laptops cannot be upgraded further, it is time to change the device, Lyonchhen said.

Factors

If the sluggish economic growth is to be related with hydropower activities, it is proportionately associated. For the last 40 years, hydropower has remained one of the key players in Bhutans economic development, Dasho Penjore said. On the back of hydrology, the country has maintained an average growth of 7.6 percent for the last four decades.

When Chukha was commissioned, economic growth leapt to 28.7 percent in 1987. Likewise, in 2002, growth increased by 10.7 percent as Tala hydropower project commissioned, and in between 2007 and 2008, Kurichhu took the economic growth to 17.9 percent.

Accelerating the construction activities in Punatshangchhu and Mangdechhu at once led to a 12 percent growth. The commissioning of Dagachhu triggered a furhter growth of eight percent.

Having hit a four-year low of 3 percent GDP growth, the RMA in its annual report has projected the economy to rebound to 6.7 percent driven primarily by the commissioning of Mangdechhu.

The low GDP is also attributed to poor hydrology contributing to a reduction in 15 percent generation, slowdown in hydropower construction activities, and declining investments in the sector by 56 percent.

This was further worsened by the delay in the two Punatshangchhu projects.

This is why the governor said economic diversification was purposely enticed to cushion the impacts that comes with hydropower development.

The second trigger is the government expenditure. Beginning the fifth Plan, the RMA annual report states that there is big shift in budget. While the budget outlay has increased substantially, there has been a decrease in capital expenditure.

For instance, 50 percent of the outlay of 10th Plan was allocated for capital expenditure, which decreased to 49 percent in the last Plan and 37 percent in the current Plan.

The consolation is that subsequent governments were able to meet the current expenditure from domestic revenue, adhering to the Constitutional mandate. Since the seventh Plan, more than 70 percent of the total outlay was met from domestic revenue.

Dasho Penjore said that this was a big achievement.

Further, he said that tax reforms, which is under the scrutiny of the Parliament, would prepare the country for LDC graduation.

Domestic credit, being a concern for growing non-performing loans (NPL), is one of the drivers of growth in its own way.

A growth in domestic credit by 20 percent between 2018 and 2019 has contributed to the growth. The gloomy part of the domestic credit, according to the governor, is that it doesnt generate employment.

A high NPL is often brought under the radar of various institutions, including the private sector itself.

Dasho Penjore, during the launch of the RMA annual report, said that it was important to delve into the details.

The Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan (RICBL) alone has an NPL of more than 50 percent, followed by Bhutan Development Bank at 23.4 percent. The RICBLs case pertains to various factors leading to mismanagement and embezzlement.

BDBL has been catering the financing need of the rural populace and the bank has been financing 99 percent of the agriculture loans until the initiation of PSL. The rest of the banks had maintained their NPL below the threshold of 10 percent.

The RICBL has been put under rehab and the their NPL this year has been reduced by half. RMA will render all its support and concessions to BDBL, Dasho Penjore said.

The disturbing factor in domestic credit is consumption. Dasho Penjore said that if the economy produced enough for itself, then consumption would not be an issue. However, when consumption leads to higher imports, he said that it could distort the current account balance.

NPL in the service and tourism is as high as 30 percent of the portfolio.

Some observers blame this on the governments inability to monitor the hospitality sector. Reality, according to RMA, is different.

The boom in the hotel sector has contributed a domestic credit of Nu 35B while contributing to a growth of 7.8 percent in the service sector.

This again, Dasho Penjore said, was driven by reduction in interest rate of 2.5 percent on an average and fiscal incentives.

Major defaulter in the service sector is the construction sector accounting for Nu 4B defaults compared with Nu 700M in the hospitality and tourism. When combined service and tourism has high NPL but it is also important to dissect the sector.

Even then, Dasho Penjore said that the central bank has never directed the financial institutions to stop loans in particular sector, but to tweak on the interest rates. If a banks exposure on housing is high, that bank could increase the rate to 15 percent and subsidize on other products, he said.

The principle is that if hoteliers find it profitable to construct hotels even with a financing cost of 15 percent then banks should have the freedom to raise the interest rates.

In the end, what matters according the Dasho Penjore is that the orthodox way of making economic decisions will not work in the 21st century.

See the article here:

What's driving the economy? - Kuensel, Buhutan's National Newspaper

Photo: Startup Grind | Facebook

11 Conferences Every Entrepreneur Should Attend in 2020

One of the best ways to boost your status as an entrepreneur is to go to the right entrepreneur conference. Conferences not only allow you to get insight from some of the fields biggest names, they also afford you the opportunity to connect with people in the same boat as you. No one succeeds in business alone, and conferences are a great way to make valuable connections.

Over the past 10 years Ive attended thousands of conferences. At one point, would sometimes attend three to four conferences a week. That all changed when I had my daughter. I then had less time to travel. It changed even more when my team started to grow from a two- or three-person team to a multi-company team with hundreds of different employees. I could no longer take off so many days to attend all these conferences. I had to whittle them down to the best conferences that drove the most amount of revenue. I wanted to limit myself to 12-18 conferences that really moved my bottom line.

Here are the top conferences every entrepreneur should attend in 2020 that will actually move their bottom line:

February 11-12; Silicon Valley

Startup Grinds annual global conference dedicates two days to relentless innovation and learning by every single attendee. Featuring over 100 speakers and dozens of corporate partners, Startup Grind has made this conference a valuable experience for entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. Of particular interest is the Startup Program, an opportunity for 300 startups to exhibit to some of their industrys greatest minds and investors.

Date and location TBA

Mastermind Talks is an invitation-only event that is exactly what it sounds like: a venue for some of the worlds most dynamic innovators to share their insights. Just because the speakers are notable, however, doesnt mean the conference has lost sight of its attendees the intimate and congenial nature of Mastermind Talks ensures that downtime is minimal and networking opportunities plentiful.

Date and location TBA

EYs CEO-focused event may be invitation-only, but the Strategic Growth Forum hasnt lost its forward-thinking mindset in the years since its founding. 2019s speakers included Lindsey Vonn, Alex Morganand Nicole Kidman and 2020s lineup is likely to be just as impressive. Each forum concludes with the awarding of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, a fantastic ceremony that should inspire any attendee to keep pushing in the coming year.

March 4-5; Santa Monica, CA

The Montgomery Summit is an opportunity for cutting-edge leaders to connect and share insights theyve gleaned from the front line of business. Attendance is offered by invitation only, and this exclusive atmosphere allows The Montgomery Summit to seem less like a conference and more like a get-together for some of businesss brightest minds. Most conferences dont offer one-on-one meetings with top-level executives from across the business world, but The Montgomery Summit isnt most conferences.

date and location TBA

Possibly the business worlds flashiest conference, Worldz is an annual event focused on blurring the lines between innovation, recreation, and connection. By featuring speakers that run the gamut from Jonah Peretti to Shaquille ONeal, Worldz guarantees that every attendee has the opportunity to hear from someone they can learn from. With its 2019 iteration featuring a complete transformation of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, Worldz 2020 is bound to leave a lasting impression.

September 30-October 3; Long Beach, CA

Designed as a conference and community, FinCon brings together financial influencers, decision makersand brands. Throughout the conference and beyond, this community collaborates on the best methods to generate and share content that audiences can use to create financial freedom. FinCon has become the largest financial content conference in the world, drawing podcasters, influencers, bloggers, and financial experts to share their knowledge and exchange ideas. The conference agenda grows every year with additional panels, workshopsand networking events.

Date and location TBA

Ontraport has become nearly ubiquitous in the business world, and OPLZA is the perfect opportunity to master your skills with the software. Tech isnt the conferences only focus, though OPLZA is also an opportunity to get away and use the Ontraport platform as a way to think about how you can grow and evolve your business going forward.

Events throughout the year in Mexico, Utah, Italy, and New Orleans

Baby Bathwater events are just about as unprofessional as it gets ...and thats a good thing. The focus of Baby Bathwater is to provide a casual, community feel that focuses on unplugging, having genuine experiences, and making lasting connections; their ban on pitching also allows all attendees to breathe a bit more easily. Taking place in scenic locations all around the world, Baby Bathwater is a great opportunity to push your business and career to the next level while getting some time off in the process.

Date and location TBA

Deloittes Entrepreneur Summit is a unique, networking-focused event open to all entrepreneurs. Though the summit covers all bases of entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a particular focus of the event making it a must-attend for anyone working in M&A. Deloitte collects yearly, detailed conference feedback from its partner and attendees, ensuring that 2020s event will be even more impactful than 2019s.

10. SaaStr

March 10-12; San Jose, CA

SaaStr is for those founders, executivesand investors involved in SaaS and the business cloud environment. This annual non-vendor SaaS conference provides three days of panel discussions, sessions, small group meetings, one-on-one mentoring sessions, networking and parties. As part of the three-day event, one entire day is devoted to pitches from venture capitalists. SaaStr is strictly about learning, business and professional development, and collaboration. Featured speakers include leaders of Airtable, Box, Github, Google Cloud, Zoom and more.

May 1-3; St. Louis, MO

Every entrepreneur, regardless of their field or status, wants to achieve financial freedom at some point, and FinCons Financial Freedom Summit is geared towards giving you the tools you need to get there. Focusing on both business and personal finance, the event is designed to help everyone move to the next level of fiscal independence, regardless of where theyre at in their journey.

Entrepreneurs face new hurdles every day ones that arent always easy to prepare for. By learning from the best and connecting with other leaders in your field, you can safeguard against whats to come and give your business a boost along the way.

Related:Top 5 Must-Attend Events for Startups11 Conferences Every Entrepreneur Should Attend in 20205 Leadership Conferences You Can't Afford to Miss in 2020

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11 Conferences Every Entrepreneur Should Attend in 2020 - Thehour.com

People with conservative political beliefs are consistently misrepresented. That has been an idea simmering on the back burner of my mind. Over the Christmas holidays it boiled over. The catalyst was a CBC tweet with a link to a story that read: As conservatives across the country resist efforts to reduce emissions, Island PCs chart a different course. Anyone familiar with the Conservative Party of Canada and all provincial conservative parties, including the PCs in P.E.I., know conservative policies support lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

As this example shows, the greatest political achievement of Liberals, NDP and Green (or those left of centre on the political spectrum) over the last two decades was to cause conservatives (or those right of centre on the political spectrum) to be consistently misrepresented; worst of all, Conservatives allowed it to happen. Whether misogyny, racism, homophobia, bigotry, Islamophobia or the environment, conservatives as a whole have been associated with negative terms such as alt or far-right, science denier, white nationalist and more when discussing these topics. Many political discussions for conservatives in recent decades have revolved around what they do not stand for.

Today, freedom of speech is being stifled in the name of political correctness. As George Carlin said, political correctness is fascism with manners and comes disguised as tolerance. Canadian society will never accept hate and intolerance. Therefore, disagreeing or being offended by a perspective or opinion should never be acceptable grounds to label or personally attack a person, even a conservative.

Any time you have a large number of people associated with an ideology or political party, there will always be a very small percentage that embarrass the entire group. In the last federal election, the Liberals ran a candidate who made anti-Jewish and anti-Israel statements. Does this mean the entire Liberal party, or someone who identifies as or votes Liberal, is anti-Semitic?

So, lets establish that a conservative is not a racist, misogynist, Islamophobic, science denying, homophobic, Bible-thumping bigot.

Now, if that is what a conservative is not; what is a conservative? Writing as a proud conservative I can tell you conservatives:

1) Believe in dignity and equality of all people, including the LGBTQ+ community.

2) Believe the environment is to be protected by each generation for the next.

3) Believe all Canadians should have access to quality health care.

4) Believe in a balance between compassionate social policy and fiscal responsibility that promotes self-reliance.

5) Believe individuals are responsible to provide for themselves, their families and their dependents, while recognizing that government must respond to those who cannot.

6) Believe the purpose of government is to create an environment where initiative is rewarded while security and privacy are protected.

7) Believe individual prosperity is best achieved by the freedom to pursue legitimate interests within a competitive economy; to enjoy the fruits of ones labour to the greatest extent possible; and the right to own property.

8) Believe in the freedom of the individual, including freedom of speech, worship and assembly.

9) Believe Canada should support a well-armed military, honour those who serve, and promote our history and traditions.

10) Believe in a sovereign and united country governed by the Constitution of Canada, its parliamentary institutions, and the rule of law.

If you share many of these beliefs, congratulations you likely lean or are conservative. In recent years, social media, news and popular culture have treated conservatism as a condition worthy of quarantine. But it has been under the above principles Canadian technology, innovation and natural resources have thrived, and, as a result, so too has our economy and standard of living.

I hope this letter leads to a discussion on why Canada needs conservative leadership now more than ever. Based on conversations Ive had with people in my everyday life and from my experiences during the last federal election as a Conservative candidate in Avalon, many lean Conservative in their political beliefs despite voting anything but. With new Conservative Party of Canada leadership and better messaging, 2020 looks to be the year people realize Canada, and in particular Newfoundland and Labrador, needs a conservative-led government.

Matthew Chapman,Paradise

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LETTER: You likely lean conservative and you dont know it - TheChronicleHerald.ca

Rep. Justin Amash speaks at CPAC 2013(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)It seems to suggest, after all, that there is no place for an independent in politics.

For years, fiscally conservative advocacy groups were giving then-Republican representative Justin Amash awards, praise, and donations. Now that hes an independent, however, many of those same groups are snubbing him entirely.

Yes : Although Amash remains the most fiscally conservative member of Congress, his departure from the Republican party and support of impeachment have apparently made him a leper in the eyes of the exact same groups who claim to want to fight for fiscal responsibility.

Take, for example, the libertarian/conservative group FreedomWorks. As Matt Welch notes in a piece for Reason, the group gave Amash a FreedomFighter award every single one of his first eight years in Congress, lauding his commitment to the fight for individual liberty and fiscal responsibility. By all accounts, Amash is still very much fighting for those things. The only difference, really, is that hes now doing so as an independent rather than as a Republican and now, FreedomWorks is saying it doesnt plan to continue supporting him.

We dont have any plans to get involved in MI-03 at this time, seeing as were focused on some other key races to help regain the GOPs House majority, a FreedomWorks spokesman, Peter Vicenzi, told The Dispatch. Were going to support some incumbents as well, mainly [House Freedom Caucus] members.

(Note: Amash had actually co-founded the Freedom Caucus, but left it just last June, only weeks before leaving the Republican party altogether.)

FreedomWorks, unfortunately, isnt alone in changing its mind on Amash. As Welch notes, the Club for Growth which brags on its website that it is the only organization that is willing and able to take on any Member of Congress on policy who fails to uphold basic economic conservative principles . . . regardless of party used to be Amashs biggest campaign contributor. Like FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth also gave Amash awards during his first eight years in office, and it still gives him an impressive 99 percent lifetime rating. Given all of this, youd think that the group would continue to support a representative that is so closely aligned with its stated mission.

But youd be wrong. When The Dispatchs Declan Garvey asked if theyd be supporting Amash this time around, he reportedly received an indignant no.

The DeVos family also announced that it would stop supporting Amash last year, and the self-described conservative/libertarian Americans for Prosperity said that they have nothing to announce regarding Amash at this time.

As Welch notes, Amash is indeed facing a tough battle in 2020. Whats more, Welch is also correct that the loss of Amash as a member of Congress would be a loss for the groups that are now refusing to support him. He does, after all, represent many of the exact values that they claim to be fighting for.

The truth is, though, I think that whats happening to Amash here represents a huge problem for our country overall whether you agree with his specific views or not. It seems to suggest, after all, that there is no place for an independent in politics.

Like him or not, you really should respect the fact that Justin Amash makes his political decisions based only on his principles which is truly refreshing in our hyper-partisan era. All too we often, we see politicians on both sides desperately twisting themselves into partisan-hack pretzels, for the sole purpose of defending their own team or attacking the other, without any thought to principles or values whatsoever. This is incredibly harmful, because the people in power over us are not interested in searching for the truth. Instead, theyre viewing everything through their partisan lenses, concerned only with how they can spin things to make their side look better than the other.

This is bad news for all of us. The best policy, after all, is always going to be whats based on actual facts. Whats more, the prevalence of blind partisan loyalty makes government corruption much easier. Think about it: If politicians know that, no matter what they do, theyll have a whole team backing them up and defending them, its going to make it easier for them to get away with more.

I want to see Justin Amash win, and thats not only because I happen to agree with him on most things its also because, even when I dont agree, I can rest assured that at least hes being guided by something greater than the thoughtless partisan hackery.

The rest is here:

Amashs Donors Are Snubbing Him Now That Hes an Independent and Thats Bad for Everyone - National Review

The U.S. Navy says the Freedom class Littoral Combat Ship USS Little Rock will get a 150-kilowatt class laser weapon system from Lockheed Martin this year. This would make Little Rock the third of the service's warships to be fitted with a high-power laser of some kind, following the installation of two different designs on the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Dewey and the San Antonio class landing platform dock amphibious ship USS Portland last year. The War Zonewas first to report that both of these vessels had gotten their respective lasers.

U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Richard Brown, Commander of Naval Surface Forces, told reporters about the impending laser installation on Jan. 13, 2020, as first reported by USNI News. At around this exact time last year, the officer had announced plans to have Little Rock deploy in early Fiscal Year 2020, which officially began on Oct. 1, 2019. If that schedule remains the same this ship notably suffered damage after smacking into a moored vessel in Canada last year shortly after the Navy took delivery of it the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) could be receiving its laser very soon, if it hasn't already, and be preparing to deploy. It is most likely headed for a cruise in Latin American waters, where its primary mission could be chasing drug smugglers, according to USNI News.

Vice Admiral Brown did not say what laser the Navy would install on Little Rock, but the most likely candidate would seem to be a variant or derivative of Lockheed Martin's High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance system, or HELIOS. Previous reports have said this laser is in the 60-kilowatt class, but that the manufacturer was looking to increase its power to the 150-kilowatt class.

As its name implies, HELIOS blends an optical dazzler, which can blind and confuse optics on hostile ships, aircraft, and drones, as well as optical seekers on missiles and other munitions, together with a high-energy laser capable of actually disabling and destroying certain targets, such as small unmanned aircraft and swarms of small boats.

Integrating HELIOS onto Little Rock would make good sense as it is one of two remaining lasers in the Navy Laser Family of Systems (NLoS) that have yet to find their way onto a ship. In November 2019, USS Deweyemerged equipped with what appeared to be the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) system. USS Portlandis now armed with the prototype developed under the Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) program. The service has also said that there is no immediate plan for an at-sea demonstration of a design developed under the Ruggedized High Energy Laser (RHEL) effort, the last of the four NLoS efforts.

However, if this is the case, it would also represent an important acceleration of the Navy's plans for HELIOS, which it also refers to as the Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS) Increment 1. Previously, the service had said that it would install this laser onto an Arleigh Burke class destroyer sometime in Fiscal Year 2021.

The big thing were looking at is, what is that opportunity to pull things in so for instance with directed energy, between the HELIOS, being able to get that onto a DDG [Arleigh Burke], and then some scalable laser technology that weve been working on, whats our opportunity to deploy a laser sooner on an LCS, and the opportunity to potentially use one of those weapons modules to do that as opposed to having to design it someway into the ship?" Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin's Vice President and General Manager of Small Combatants and Ship Systems, told USNI News in August 2019. "Use some of that power, space, and weight of the mission package to be able to field another capability which was inherently the thought process behind the design of LCS, to be able to integrate those new technologies faster because of the modularity of the ship."

USNI Newshas also reported that Lockheed Martin may have been able to accelerate the integration of HELIOS, or a derivative thereof, onto a Freedom class LCS because of the ship's purpose-built modular design, which means it has significant available space and power generation. This was originally intended to support various mission modules, which have become a saga unto themselves that you can read about more in this past War Zone piece. Lockheed Martin's shipbuilding division also designed and continues to build the Freedom class ships, giving it a deep existing knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of these vessels.

Still, DePietro's mention of "scalable laser technology" raises questions about whether a Freedom class LCS would actually be able to support a 150-kilowatt class system, such as HELIOS, which the Navy has previously indicated would require the power generation capabilities of a significantly larger ship. So, it's also possible that Vice Admiral Brown misspoke and the Lockheed Martin laser Little Rock is getting will be something else, perhaps with more limited capabilities, such as ODIN, which is just an optical dazzler.

Adding a laser to Little Rock could be a stepping stone to adding them to other ships in the Freedom class, as well as other similarly sized ships, such as the Independence class LCSs and the Navy's future FFG(X) frigates. The service has already indicated that it is interested in integrating 150-kilowatt class lasers onto whatever frigate design it chooses in the end and Lockheed Martin has already bailed on competing with a ship of its own to focus on providing key systems for the remaining entrants.

DePietro had told USNI News that he saw adding a laser to one of his company's LCSs another way to counter complaints about the ships' limited capabilities and vulnerabilities, even in lower-risk scenarios, as well. The Navy has similarly been rushing to add RGM-148A Naval Strike Missiles to both classes of LCS to improve their offensive punch.

Read more:

Navy Littoral Combat Ship Will Soon Be Armed With A Laser Weapon System - The Drive