Monday, July 28, 2014

Marathon Patent Group (MARA) Q2 Preview

Marathon Patent Group (MARA) was very active during Q2 2014 and finally completed their objective to be up-listed to a senior exchange in early Q3.  I have tracked 31 settlement / case dismissals in Q2 although the company will likely officially report a lower number of agreements as they should fall under the RPX licenses.

CRFD Research (5) - F5 Networks, Verizon, Amazon, Level 3, Cablevision Systems

CyberFone (3) - Konica Minolta, Igenico, UPS

Sampo (4) - Linkedin, Facebook, eBay, Blackboard



Vantage Point (2) - Barnes & Nobles, Wacom Technology


Relay IP (17) -  Brocade, Lek Securities, Trading Technologies, CBOE Holdings, FactSet Research, Securities Industry Automation, Bloomberg, Hewlett Packard, Sprint, Extreme Networks, Juniper Networks, Allied Telesis, BT Group, Avaya, Cisco, Enterasys Networks, Transaction Network Services

The revenue and earnings are very difficult to estimate.  My opinion is revenue comes in between $3.5 and $4.5M.  I also expect the company to report another Non-GAAP profit, which will hopefully top the $1M mark.

I am hopeful the company will hold a conference call to discuss Q2 2014 results and corporate events.  I am looking for commentary related to the following:

Opus Analytic scheduled to be released in Q3 2014 per the investor presentation.  Looking for a status update and would like it to still be on schedule.  I am also looking for commentary on what kind of revenue/profits they are expecting.

Pipeline of patents the company is reviewing and acquiring.  The last deal with IPNav brought in Dynamic, Sarif, Andrulis, and Selene Communications.  Marathon needs to continue to evaluate and acquire more patents to create a steady stream of monetization opportunities.  They need to learn from Acacia's revenue trough "problem" in 2013, which I fully expect they have a plan for.

Any scheduling of Markman hearings and/or trial dates.  Vantage Point, CRFD, E2E, Selene, Dynamic, and Signal IP should have a number of significant events over the next 6-12 months.

Conclusion:  MARA management has built the business from literally nothing to a profitable NPE in a very short amount of time.  The Q2 report should be very good in my opinion as the company executed a solid quarter.

Disclosure: I am long MARA. I have not been compensated to publish this blog entry by any company discussed. All information is based on publicly available information and all opinions/conclusions are my own. This blog entry is only for informational purposes. Please contact a registered financial agent before making any financial decisions.
Please contact me with any questions, corrections, or more information.
email: iphawk@outlook.com twitter: @theiphawk

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