Divests Consulting Team and Adds Chief
Commercial Officer
Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (“OPT” or the “Company”) (NYSE
American: OPTT), a leader in innovative and cost-effective
low-carbon marine power, data, and service solutions, today
announced several milestones and initiatives it believes will
enhance shareholder value, including:
- OPT is divesting its non-core strategic consulting team
- With its research and development phase substantially
completed, the Company now expects to achieve profitability in
calendar year 2025
- Matt Burdyny has been appointed to the newly created role of
Chief Commercial Officer to drive commercialization efforts that
will support OPT’s financial goals
OPT CEO and President Dr. Philipp Stratmann commented: “As we
have consistently stated, we are seeing meaningful progress in
orders, pipeline, and backlog across our business, especially with
the completion of our product development efforts. Despite current
economic headwinds, we have built a cutting-edge suite of products
that we believe will be the basis for our current and future
commercial success and that will help drive profitability in
calendar year 2025. Matt’s promotion to the newly created Chief
Commercial Officer role aligns with our strategy of focusing on
meeting our customers’ needs and emphasizing commercialization as
we move away from the R&D phase of our evolution. Our focus
remains first and foremost on executing our strategy in order to
generate value for our shareholders.”
Divestiture of Non-Core Strategic Consulting Team
OPT has divested its strategic consulting team so that it can
more fully focus its efforts and resources on the commercialization
of its cutting-edge pipeline of products – particularly for the
national security and defense markets. In addition to the
divesture, the Company also announced that recent achievements in
R&D, such as the WAM-V charging demonstration and the
Mass-On-Spring-Wave-Energy-Converter (MOSWEC) developments, have
enabled additional reallocation of headcount and a material
reduction in third-party expenditure. As a result, more than 50% of
OPT’s employees are now dedicated to customer delivery.
Path to Reaching Profitability During Calendar Year
2025
OPT expects that recent meaningful contract wins, the growth in
OPT’s commercial pipeline, and the corresponding savings from the
divestiture of its consulting team will enable it to reach
profitability during calendar year 2025 using current capital
resources. This expectation does not account for extraordinary
expenses that could cause OPT to seek additional capital from
financing sources.
Key Addition to Executive Leadership Team
To help drive the next phase of OPT’s growth and the
commercialization of its cutting-edge products, particularly for
the national security and defense markets, OPT has appointed Matt
Burdyny, its current Vice President, Sales & Marketing, to the
newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Burdyny will
report directly to Dr. Stratmann. Mr. Burdyny first joined OPT in
March of 2022 as Vice President, Sales & Marketing. During the
past two years, the commercial team has built a pipeline consisting
primarily of national security and defense applications. The
majority of the team is now comprised of U.S. military and NATO
veterans and staff who have held security clearances.
For more information on Ocean Power Technologies please visit
our website at: www.OceanPowerTechnologies.com.
About Ocean Power Technologies:
OPT, a leader in innovative and cost-effective, low carbon
marine data, power, and consulting services, provides intelligent
maritime solutions and services that enable safer, cleaner, and
more productive ocean operations for the defense and security, oil
and gas, science and research, and offshore wind markets. Our
PowerBuoy® platforms provide clean and reliable electric power and
real-time data communications for remote maritime and subsea
applications. We also provide WAM-V® autonomous surface vessels
(ASV) and marine robotics services through our wholly owned
subsidiary Marine Advanced Robotics and strategic consulting
services including simulation engineering, software engineering,
concept design and motion analysis through our wholly owned
subsidiary 3Dent. We are headquartered in Monroe Township, New
Jersey, and have offices in Houston, Texas, and Richmond,
California. To learn more, visit
www.OceanPowerTechnologies.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are
within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements in
this release include, but are not limited to, those statements
relating to OPT’s future operating and financial performance, the
impact of OPT’s various initiatives on the enhancement of
stockholder value and its future operating and financial
performance, OPT’s expectation that it will be profitable during
calendar year 2025, the impact on OPT of divesting its consulting
team, including the projected savings that OPT will experience
therefrom, the growth in OPT’s opportunity pipeline, OPT’s ability
to monetize such opportunities into actual revenue, and the impact
on OPT of expanding its executive leadership team, OPT’s ability to
drive the next phase of its growth and the commercialization of its
products, OPT’s ability to execute on its strategy and create value
for its stockholders, the expenses that OPT will incur to respond
to the proxy contest and the related litigation being waged by
Paragon Technologies, Inc., OPT’s ability to finance its operations
without seeking additional capital from financing sources, the
impact on OPT of substantially completing its research and
development phase, other statements relating to OPT’s future
economic and operating performance, plans, or objectives, and all
other statements contained in this press release that are not
historical facts. Other forward-looking statements are identified
by certain words or phrases such as “may”, “will”, “aim”, “will
likely result”, “believe”, “expect”, “will continue”, “anticipate”,
“estimate”, “intend”, “plan”, “contemplate”, “seek to”, “future”,
“objective”, “goal”, “project”, “should”, “will pursue” and similar
expressions or variations of such expressions. These
forward-looking statements reflect OPT’s current expectations about
its future performance, plans, and objectives. By their nature,
forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions and
estimates that could be inaccurate and involve risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ
from those anticipated or expressed in any forward-looking
statement. These estimates and assumptions reflect our best
judgment based on currently known market conditions and other
factors. Although we believe such estimates and assumptions to be
reasonable, they are inherently uncertain and involve a number of
risks and uncertainties that are beyond our control, including,
without limitation risks related to our ability to execute on our
strategy, drive growth, and create value for our stockholders; our
ability to develop, market, and commercialize our products; our
ability to monetize our opportunity pipeline; our ability to
achieve and, thereafter, sustain profitability; our ability to win
government contracts, including in the defense and security
sectors; the possibility that we may not be able to obtain the
necessary facility and personnel clearances to qualify for certain
government contracts, including in the defense and security
sectors; our ability to continue the development of our proprietary
technologies; our expected continued use of cash from operating
activities unless or until we achieve positive cash flow from the
commercialization of our products and services; our ability to
obtain additional funding, as and if needed; our history of
operating losses, which we expect to continue for at least the
short term and possibly longer; our ability to control our
expenses; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel,
including executive management; our ability to manage and mitigate
risks associated with our internal cyber security protocols and
protection of the data we collect and distribute; our ability to
protect our intellectual property portfolio; the impact of
inflation related to the U.S. dollar on our business, operations,
customers, suppliers and manufacturers, and personnel; our ability
to meet product development, manufacturing and customer delivery
deadlines; our ability to identify and penetrate markets for our
products, services, and solutions; and the risks related to the
actions of Paragon Technologies, Inc. in connection with its
threatened proxy contest against OPT and the related litigation
brought against OPT, including the amount of related costs incurred
by OPT and the disruption caused to OPT’s business activities by
these actions.
Many of these factors are beyond our ability to control or
predict. These factors are not intended to represent a complete
list of the general or specific factors that may affect us.
Additional factors are described in OPT’s Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and
Form 8-K reports (including all amendments to those reports). Any
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such
statements are made, and OPT undertakes no obligation or intent to
update such forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances arising after such date. OPT cautions investors not
to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements.
These cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements
attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf.
Important Additional Information And Where To Find It
OPT intends to file a proxy statement and an accompanying
WHITE proxy card with the SEC
in connection with the solicitation of proxies from OPT’s
stockholders in connection with the matters to be considered at the
2023 Annual Meeting. INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS ARE STRONGLY
ENCOURAGED TO READ ANY SUCH PROXY STATEMENT AND THE ACCOMPANYING
WHITE PROXY CARD AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
FILED BY OPT WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY
BECOME AVAILABLE AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.
Stockholders will be able to obtain the Proxy Statement, any
amendments or supplements to the Proxy Statement, the accompanying
WHITE proxy card, and other
documents filed by OPT with the SEC free of charge at the SEC’s
website at www.sec.gov. Copies will also be available free of
charge at the Investor Relations section of OPT’s corporate website
at www.oceanpowertechnologies.com, by writing to OPT’s Corporate
Secretary at Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., 28 Engelhard Drive,
Suite B, Monroe Township, NJ 08831, or by contacting OPT at (609)
730-0400.
Certain Participant Information
OPT, members of its Board of Directors, and certain of its
executive officers are “participants” in the solicitation of
proxies from OPT’s stockholders in connection with the 2023 Annual
Meeting. The following directors and executive officers of OPT
beneficially hold the amount of shares of OPT’s common stock
indicated adjacent to his or her name: (i) OPT directors: Terence
J. Cryan (148,595 shares), Philipp Stratmann (93,807 shares), Clyde
W. Hewlett (71,577 shares), Natalie Lorenz-Anderson (52,448
shares), Diana G. Purcel (71,577 shares), and Peter E. Slaiby
(96,577 shares); and (ii) OPT officers who are not also directors
of OPT: Robert Powers (28,888 shares) and Joseph DiPietro (2,909
shares). The business address for each of the foregoing persons is
c/o Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., 28 Engelhard Drive, Suite B,
Monroe Township, NJ 08831. Additional information regarding OPT’s
directors, executive officers, and other participants in the
solicitation of proxies from OPT’s stockholders in connection with
the matters to be considered at the 2023 Annual Meeting, and their
direct or indirect interests, through security holdings or
otherwise, will be set forth in OPT’s proxy statement for its 2023
Annual Meeting, including the schedules and appendices thereto.
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