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Paragon Technologies Recommends Ocean Power Shareholders Vote AGAINST the Company's Plan to Increase Its Authorized Shares and Hold the Board Accountable for Its Wasteful Spending That Leads to Increasing Losses
Paragon Technologies Recommends Ocean Power Shareholders Vote AGAINST the Company's Plan to Increase Its Authorized Shares and Hold the Board Accountable for Its Wasteful Spending That Leads to Increasing Losses.
About this update from Paragon Technologies, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"EASTON, PA / ACCESSWIRE / July 26, 2024 / Paragon Technologies, Inc. ("Paragon"), a diversified holding company and a large shareholder of Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American:OPTT), ("Company" or "OPT"), issues the following statement to OPT shareholders:On July 5, OPT filed a proxy statement calling for a special meeting of shareholders on August 30, 2024, asking shareholders to approve increasing the Company's authorized shares to 200 million, up from 100 million.On July 25, 2025, OPT announced Fiscal 2024 financial results revealing that it lost $27.4 million in fiscal 2024 versus $26.3 million in fiscal 2023.In reporting this record loss, CEO Philip Stratmann continues to celebrate the Company's revenue growth while failing to address the growing losses. And the Company's forecast of $12 million in contracted orders in FY 2025, given the Company's $32 million in operating expenses in FY 2024, likely guarantees another year of significant losses.In an SEC filing on December 13, 2023, OPT's CEO issued a statement that OPT would generate "positive cash flow in calendar year 2025 using current cash available."In its July 5 proxy, OPT revealed that the Company now has 90 million shares outstanding, up from 59 million shares since April 30, 2024. Merely months after Mr. Stratmann committed to using OPT's current cash, he and the Board have already reneged on their commitment and sold 30 million shares.Even if OPT were to cut costs by 30% to $22 million a year (unlikely given that this Board and CEO have only increased costs) and 100% of the forecasted orders materialize into revenue, OPT will still lose tens of millions of dollars in Fiscal 2025. Showing only $3 million in cash on the balance sheet as of April 30, 2024, the Board can only continue to issue shares to keep OPT from going insolvent. Mr. Stratmann doesn't give any indication of how OPT will survive if it can't sell more shares at these depressed prices.Based on the information and guidance provided by OPT in its FY 2024 earnings release, the data indicates that:a) OPT will fail to achieve anything near the "cash flow positive" results in 2025 committed to by Mr. Stratmann.b) OPT has no option for survival without diluting existing shareholders and almost certainly destroying shareholder value further.Paragon ...