NewMarket Technology, Inc. Releases Letter to Shareholders Requesting Shareholder Suggestions for Refined Vision and Mission Statements
CEO Discusses Success Growing to $93 Million in Revenue With $7 Million in Net Income in Underserved Market and Desire to Better Communicate Corporate Message
DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire - May 22, 2008) - NewMarket Technology, Inc. (OTCBB: NMKT) today
released a letter to shareholders from CEO Philip Verges requesting
suggestions and feedback from shareholders with regards to refining the
Company's vision and mission statements in an effort to increase
shareholder understanding and shareholder involvement. The letter is
included in its entirety below.
Dear Fellow Shareholders --
NewMarket's growth in an underserved market over the previous five years
has been terrific. In 2002, the Company reported just $1 million in
revenue and in 2007 the Company reported over $93 million in revenue, with
over $7 million in net income.
Internally, the Company has developed a unique and effective business model
that has resulted in outstanding operational and financial success. As per
Deloitte's independent rankings, we have been one of the fastest growing
technology companies in the United States and Texas for over four years. We
continue to improve our fundamental financials each quarter, and our
operations have expanded around the world. However, we feel like we have
lost some people along the way because they don't have a full understanding
of what we do and who we are.
We have been able to combine new and innovative technology into small
business opportunities that empower small business to compete in a big
business market. Our communications to the market in the past have
concentrated on explaining our business model. Our challenge has been that
our business model is unique and has some complexity. To our knowledge,
nobody else in the world is doing business in quite the same way. Because
of this, we can't exactly just say to shareholders that we are an "XYZ"
company. Naturally, shareholders want to understand what a company does
before they become an owner. To facilitate this understanding, we have
strived to create new terminology for what we do and who we are. We have
tried to be creative in the methods we use to communicate with
shareholders. The results have been mixed, and it seems we have not
eliminated all of the confusion as to the exact nature of NewMarket's
business.
While we are delivering very good financial results, we need to improve our
message. A better message will result in a more involved and an expanded
shareholder base. It should also improve our opportunity to win more
contracts and improve our recognition in the capital markets.
NewMarket has a healthy number of active shareholders for a relatively
small company. The number of shareholders is approximately 13,000. We
want to recruit each and every one of you to help modify our corporate
message to better attract both new shareholders and new business
opportunities. Sometimes as management we are too close to things. As they
say, sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees. I am calling
on all of you to help us describe and communicate the nature of our forest.
We enjoy a good volume of regular telephone calls and emails from
shareholders, and we have encouraging attendance at our frequent public
presentations. I am now looking to the shareholders to help us in refining
the Company's vision and mission statements.
I have recently self-published a position paper on the challenges and
opportunities in the small business marketplace. To receive a copy of the
paper, please contact Investor Relations at ir@newmarkettechnology.com or
214-722-3065. NewMarket is specifically interested in the opportunity to
leverage new and innovative technology to meet those challenges and seize
those opportunities.
In this letter I have included some brief discussion on the Company's
marketplace and direction. I hope you might take some time to review this
letter and the position paper and send us your thoughts and even your
proposed suggestions for a mission and vision statement.
As you consider how we might improve our corporate message, here are a few
thoughts that might help fuel some ideas;
When Considering the NewMarket Vision and Mission
As I consider NewMarket's message I review the following questions in my
own mind:
What do we do?
What differentiates us from our competitors?
For our regular listeners, you have certainly seen our past communications,
or possibly you have been to one or more of our public presentations. If
you are a new shareholder, we encourage you to review our website, press
releases and public financial reports.
As we have mentioned, NewMarket is a hybrid. We cannot simply label
ourselves as one generally accepted type of business. If we could, this
would be easy.
We are many things. We are a systems integrator, a managed service
provider, and an incubator of new technologies, just to name a few. We have
combined mainstream and new stream technology to establish a steady line of
business while trying to gain market traction for new technologies. We have
an internal corporate desire to earn higher profits with a higher purpose,
but we are not a charity.
I think we are getting closer to that "special something" with our past
communications, but we're not quite there yet -- though we are starting to
articulate the underserved potential of the small business market that
NewMarket is working within.
The Information Age and NewMarket Technology
Wall Street anticipated the Information Age to change the global economic
landscape in the late 1990s. Well, it did. Just not the way Wall Street
anticipated. While Wall Street was enamored with dot-com promises, another
market sector was absorbing the benefit of technology innovation and
producing lasting and substantial change.
At NewMarket we have been evolving a business model over the last five
years to capitalize on the market sector with the greatest potential to
produce consistent economic benefit from the results of ongoing technology
innovation.
World Wide Web's 20th Anniversary and Still Looking for Net Economic
Benefit
The World Wide Web was introduced almost 20 years ago in 1989. Since its
inception, the intuitive, graphical, hyperlinked interface has earned and
lost billions for businesses and investors. Jobs have been created and
lost. The overall net economic benefit of the World Wide Web is mixed. A
repeatable and sustainable business model with long-term benefit seems yet
to be discovered.
Can Current Success Predict Sustainability?
Google and Yahoo! have captured advertising dollars away from print, radio
and television. Will Google and Yahoo! ever lose advertising dollars to
future innovations in digital media?
Amazon has become a digital mega-shopping center and eBay a digital global
garage sale. Will future innovations enable an even more compelling and
far reaching shopping venue?
Facebook and MySpace have made social networking a heated topic of
conversation between teens and parents. YouTube has empowered the
entertainment entrepreneur. Decades from now, will today's social
networking sites be relegated to Pet Rock and Pokemon status?
Consistent ROI Potential of Small Business Plus Technology Innovation
In the midst of mixed results and indefinite futures, one consistent and
sustainable benefit of technology innovation has occurred without fanfare
in the small business sector. Ubiquitous networking technologies have made
great strides in leveling the playing field between small and big
businesses around the world. The emerging market growth in Brazil, Russia,
India and China has been fueled by small businesses. Even in the United
States, half the GDP comes from the small business sector as do eighty
percent (80%) of new jobs every year. The World Wide Web is providing
small businesses around the world with a new found level of access to
information, production resources and marketplaces that rivals the
advantage formerly reserved for big businesses and big budgets.
The NewMarket Technology Small Business Market Model - 5 Years in the
Making
NewMarket Technology has been building and refining a business model over
the last five years to identify and capitalize on small business
opportunities, leveraging recent technology innovations to compete in
market segments where big business formerly had the advantage. As I
mentioned at the onset, since 2002, the Company has grown from $1 million
in annual revenue to reporting more than $93 million in 2007 revenue with a
net income exceeding $7 million.
I look forward to working with all of you in the ongoing development of the
NewMarket Technology opportunity and receiving your feedback and
suggestions on how to best deliver NewMarket's message. I thank you all
for your support to date and patience with the Company as we continue to
work through various stages of growth.
Sincerely,
Philip Verges
CEO and Founder
Corporate E-mail Updates
To be added to NewMarket Technology's e-mail database to receive company
updates or to obtain more information on the Company, please send an e-mail
to ir@newmarkettechnology.com or call 214-722-3065.
About NewMarket Technology, Inc. (www.newmarkettechnology.com)
NewMarket helps clients maintain the delicate balance between maintaining
legacy systems and gaining a competitive edge from the latest technology
innovations. NewMarket provides certified systems integration and
maintenance services to support the prevailing industry standard solutions
from companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Infor, Cisco Systems, SAP, Siebel
and Sun Microsystems. Concurrently, NewMarket continuously seeks to acquire
emerging technology assets to incorporate into an overall product portfolio
carefully packaged to complement the prevailing industry standard
solutions.
NewMarket delivers its portfolio of products and services through its
network of Solution Integration subsidiaries in North America and the
leading emerging markets around the world to include, Latin America, China
and Singapore.
NewMarket ranked Number One in Texas, Number Three in the United States and
Number Five in North America on Deloitte's 2006 Technology Fast 500, a
ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications
and life sciences companies in North America. Rankings are based on
percentage revenue growth over five years, from 2001-2005. The Company grew
from less than $1 million in revenue in 2001 to over $50 million in
profitable revenue in 2005.
The company has continued its rapid growth, reporting $77.6 million in
revenue with a net income of $5.8 million in 2006 and most recently $93.1
million in revenue with a net income of $7.3 million in 2007.
"SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT" UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT
OF 1995
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties. The statements in this release are forward-looking
statements that are made pursuant to safe harbor provision of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results, events and
performance could vary materially from those contemplated by these
forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown
risks and uncertainties, which may cause NewMarket's actual results in
future periods to differ materially from results expressed or implied by
forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among
other things, product demand and market competition. You should
independently investigate and fully understand all risks before making
investment decisions.