Talk:Directory:IAS
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That should be 10,000 square miles, not 100 square miles...
Skeptical
On March 10, 2007, User:Nolybab wrote:
IAUS has been in existence for over 2-decades but has not had any revenues!
The company reports that Neldon Johnson graduated from the Technology Program at the Utah Technical College (UTC) in 1964. However, the school was not renamed to UTC until 1967--in fact, in 1964, the school was named the Utah Trade Technical Institute (UTTI). The UTTI was a vocational adult education school, and did not even offer any graduate, undergraduate, or associate degrees, only certificates of completions. Furthermore, IAUS claims that Neldon Johnson studied Mathematics and Physics at Brigham Young University. One must question why anyone would study at a University and then choose to graduate from a technical institute. This also calls into question many of the company's claims as to Neldon's work history. For instance, the company claims that Neldon worked as an engineer for AT&T, but one must conclude that without the proper academic credentials, this seems highly unlikely.
Failed DWM Breakthrough: The rest of the story
IAUS claims to invented a breakthrough solar technology, which combined with another breakthrough, the bladeless turbine, promises to revolutionize the entire energy industry, an industry that IAUS claims exceeds $3-trillion annually. However, the company only employs about six people and has demonstrated no ability to generate any revenues after having been in business for more than 2 decades.
IAUS's claims to a solar breakthrough is just another claim in a long history of inflated press releases that tout incredible new breakthroughs in trillion-dollar industries. In fact, the previous major instance of this type of a situation involves the alleged/so-called Digital Wave Modulation (DWM) technology, which IAUS announced in 1995. IAUS promised to demonstrate a modem, based upon IAUS's patented technology, that would exceed 600-megabaud over regular twisted pair cable (recall that in 1996, the typical modem was capable of about 28.8k). According to company press releases at the time, the company was going to demonstrate the technology in a public release in June of 1996. Just prior to the press release, shares skyrocketed to over $57 per share. Although the company had no revenues, literally overnight the company's market-cap was well over $1-billion dollars. However, when the press release finally occurred, the company, without previous announcement and claiming that they couldn't risk losing the technology's secret, neglected to provide a demonstration.
Furthermore, company insiders (esp. Neldon Johnson, Randy Johnson) sold over $3-million worth of stock at the inflated price, capitalizing on the results of the company's hype. As a result of this activity, the SEC prosecuted IAUS for equities fraud. Randy, Neldon, and others plead no-contest and were issued fines by the courts: Neldon's fines and interest on the fines totaled more than $2-million and Randy Johnson's fines were nearly $1/2 million. The court ordered that the fines be waived based upon sworn statements by the Johnson's that they were financially destitute and unable to pay the fines.
So you see, this is nothing new for IAUS. The company simply identifies a current hot trend in the business world and then goes to work spinning out a series of press releases designed to pump the share prices. Carefully evaluate the company's offerings and you'll see a long history of 'breakthrough' announcements, followed up by further announcements of contracts, agreements, sales, etc., but what you will not find is any revenues, only hype.
- So far as I can tell, the big invention here is a Fresnel lens concentrating solar power. And this makes #8 on the list? Come on... we've got LOTs of real alternatives to oil! Who the heck is ranking these guys!
- The Fresnel lens is part of what makes this technology appealing. Another strong point is their very simple turbine technology whereby the heated substance can then be turned into torque, which can be harnessed by a generator. -- Sterling D. Allan (May 9, 2007)
