Saturday, July 07, 2012

Avatar Ventures (AVVC) And Mobile SAAS

I'd like to thin out my teaser mailbag as much as possible.  Today's selection was published by Breakaway Stocks.  The subject is Avatar Ventures (AVVC), which has something to do with mobile media.  That's a deliberately broad characterization because I can't figure out exactly what they do.  Their Google Finance blurb says they make aftermarket adapters that plug into your car's dashboard and display wireless emails and text messages on an LCD screen.  That's an accident waiting to happen; drivers are distracted enough already with screaming kids in the back seat.

Their corporate website makes a little more sense with offers of mobile site content management, so maybe Google Finance should update that profile statement.   Their statements reminds me of the discussions of SAAS from this year's Enterprise 2.0 Conference, only this model seems to go a step farther with content-as-a-service.  The SAAS field is pretty crowded and the established players are pretty well-funded.  Standing out will require something really special, like a geo-location architecture that enables advertising targeted down to a city block's level of specificity.  I do not know whether Avatar will move in such a direction.  Their services right now appear to be ordinary SEO and other services that are pretty commonplace.

They offer little information about their executive team's background.  A company in this sector needs a seasoned tech team at the helm.  Their financial statements are much more revealing.  They've had no revenue at all since 2008.  They didn't even spend any money at all on any activities in the most recent quarter ending April 30, 2012.  Where are the SEC financial statements on this China-based company?  I can't find them, but I did find their corporate blog (which has all of two postings this year).  Avatar did raise a $500K private placement this April at a share price of $1.30, far above the current share price of $0.16.  Their private investors are either really optimistic or really stupid.

Come on, there's no way I can take this one seriously as a tech stock based on their performance to date.  Breakaway Stocks is developing a knack for insulting the intelligence of the investing public.

Full disclosure:  No position in AVVC, ever.