--- the subscriber area has no ads and those above are not selected or endorsed by this site ---


new InvenSense website and battlefronts ?4

17:21 14-May-15


InvenSense has rolled out a new website, which is of no fundamental importance.  However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the company is seeking to evolve from one with a billion dollar market capitalization to tens or even hundreds of billions.  That means a push on two fronts.

The first is for developer mind share.  This is how both Intel and Microsoft came to dominate personal computing... by owning the instruction sets that were used by others to innovate new products to the market. 

The second, and complimentary push is to allow innovation by enabling customization.  To that end, InvenSense has introduced its Shuttle program.  Shuttle will allow not just mobile developers, but innovators in automotive, smart-home and other industries to fabricate their own custom chips on InvenSense’s patented InvenSense Fabrication MEMS-CMOS integrated platform.

This sort of push explains recent R&D expense, and increases both risk and long-term reward. InvenSense will begin competing with much larger companies, as it has done successfully already.  This also supports the continued possibility of buyout by a broader range of industry giants.  Either way, InvenSense will need to continue to execute in order to realize its full potential, which I don't think the market is currently realizing.

Many subscribers have asked about short-term price movements, and I will continue to provide analysis on market dynamics.  Nothing I've seen so far leads me to change my opinion that the movement we've seen in the past two weeks is anything other than position adjustment around options expiration in the wake of earnings disappointment.  I still see it as a short-term phenomena, unlike the overhang that I identified towards the end of last year.  By contrast I see INVN as a very long-term opportunity. 

As always, reasonable position sizes and tolerance for volatility are called for.  Although there is little evidence of it happening yet, I continue to see Apple/Samsung share loss as the biggest short-term concern, but I think that's at least evenly balanced between risk and opportunity.  That is, if InvenSense is in (or rumored to be in) the next iPhone, the stock price could just as easily jump.  Subscribers have also asked when I will publish another public InvenSense article on Seeking Alpha.  It will probably happen, but don't hold your breath, as SA continues to degrade as a publishing platform, at least for those who want to be compensated for their work.  Work continues on my own website instead.  I appreciate your patience.