iCurie Issues Business Update
Tuesday December 20, 8:15 am ET
SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- iCurie, Inc. (OTC: ICUR - News), a full solution provider and technology licensor of thermal heat management for the PC, consumer electronics, lighting and display industries, today issued the following business update detailing the extensive progress made during 2005.
Hakan Wretsell, Chief Executive Officer of iCurie, said, "We are encouraged with the extensive progress we made in 2005 in our operations, financing and commercialization. We have announced a series of substantial licensing agreements with industry-leading customers. We have already secured $20 million in financing of our initial $22 million target, which along with our U.S. listing gives us added credibility as we work with the world-class partners we are currently engaged with. In September we opened our new state- of-the-art, manufacturing facility at Guro Industrial Park in Seoul, South Korea. The facility has the capacity to supply more than 700,000 cooling devices a year, and can be expanded to a maximum capacity of more than 1.2 million units a year. An important purpose of the plant is to supply manufacturing test samples to a wide variety of industries. Customers will have the opportunity to test and verify new designs in close coordination with iCurie's skilled research team. We now have the resources and capabilities to rapidly supply up to 500 test units from a real manufacturing environment."
Dr. Jeong Hyun Lee, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of iCurie, said, "During the past year we have been aggressively working to commercialize our proprietary technology. Building on our business momentum, we recently announced three major partnerships. We signed a licensing and distribution contract with Asia Vital Components Co., Ltd (AVC), the world's largest CPU cooler supplier. Under the new patent license and sales exclusivity agreement, AVC plans to develop, market and sell a new thermal management product based on iCurie's patented Microfluidic Cooling System (MCS) technology for use in PCs. Their first manufacturing line is already installed and is dimensioned for a capacity of between 1 million and 3 million a year, depending on model. We believe the exciting new device we are jointly developing will be the next generation of thermal conductivity solutions for PCs and laptop computers, and potentially other industries as well. Secondly, we received an order from Central Electronics, which is a further validation of our proprietary thermal management technology. Importantly, this represents the launch of a standardized product to be offered to illumination companies, like Central Electronics, worldwide as we expand beyond PC cooling solutions. And finally, we recently announced a LOI, showing the intent to enter a strategic partnership with Advanced Energy Technology, Inc (AET). AET is a subsidiary of GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE: GTI - News), one of the world's largest manufacturers of high quality synthetic and natural graphite and carbon-based products. This is a major opportunity for us to work with one of the leading companies engaged in commercializing new thermal management technologies based on expansive graphite and carbon science. Importantly, this joint development partnership could move iCurie's proprietary thermal management technology into commercialization in yet another materials environment. We have already shown very good test results in solutions based on copper, silicon and aluminum. Through AET's sales network, we expect to rapidly commercialize our products in new industries, such as the automotive and consumer entertainment industries."
Michael Karpheden, iCurie's Chief Financial Officer, commented, "iCurie will start the new year with a cash balance of approximately $6 million. We believe we now have the necessary funding in place to execute on our current business plan, including product commercialization. In line with our strict cost controls, we are taking a very conservative approach to staffing, making additions only to support specific business as we maintain a lean corporate structure. All investments made in manufacturing or development not underwritten by customers will be driven by commercialization opportunities and volume requirements."
Outlook
Looking forward, Wretsell stated, "We are very excited about our prospects. We are building a standardized product portfolio with performance ratios that shall exceed existing solutions in order to meet demand requirements of customers targeting the PC, illumination, lighting, and projector markets. We plan to make 2006 a year of commercialization for iCurie. We have the technology, portfolio of defensible patents and financing in place, with a proven team capable of executing on our business model. We are already working with several industry-leading customers and we continue to build on our active sales pipeline and technology licensing. We have created a Product Performance & Test Result Catalogue, and we are ready to launch a multi industrial product portfolio, which will happen early next year. iCurie is at the juncture of a great opportunity. Thermal management is a huge problem for electronics, lighting, communications and computing companies worldwide -- and therefore a huge opportunity for iCurie with its proven solution."
Investor Conference Call / Webcast Details
iCurie will host an investor update conference call to review the company's business progress on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. in New York. The conference call-in number is +1-201-689-8560. A live webcast of the conference call will be available at iCurie's website at icurie.com . A replay of the call will be available from 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 in New York through midnight on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 in New York at icurie.com and by telephone at +1-201-612-7415. The account number to access the replay is 3055 and the confirmation ID number is 181895.
About iCurie
iCurie is a full solution provider and technology licensor of thermal heat management for the PC, consumer electronics, lighting and display industries. The Company is a leader in developing and commercializing next-generation cooling solutions built on iCurie's patents in thermofluid nanotechnology. iCurie's extensive intellectual property portfolio includes patents registered in Korea, the U.S., Japan and Taiwan, with patents pending in the EU, Russia, India and in China. The company has partnerships with some of the word's largest manufacturers. For more information visit icurie.com .
Contacts:
Michael Karpheden
iCurie, Inc.
Chief Financial Officer
Phone: (305) 529-6290
Email: info@icurie.com
David Pasquale / Abbas Qasim
The Ruth Group
Executive Vice President
Phone: 646-536-7006 / 7014
Email: dpasquale@theruthgroup.com / aqasim@theruthgroup.com
Source: iCurie, Inc. |
