NFC Times Exclusive Insight – The new leadership at U.S-based Identiv focused primarily on its premises and identity products, particularly its new partnerships with Cisco, and mentioned its transponder business only briefly, without direct reference to NFC, in its most recent earnings call.
That’s a change in tone for the company, whose former CEO Ayman S. Ashour once described NFC as a “hypergrowth market.” Whether this change of tone was intentional or not, investors were not buying it and have sent Identiv’s shares down by more than 26% over the past five days, following release of the company’s third quarter earnings report. The shares are down by 82% from the first of the year.
Newly appointed CEO Steve Humphreys described transponders as a growth driver for Identiv, but did not mention NFC specifically, and he did not wax nearly as enthusiastic as his predecessors; Humphreys reserved his enthusiasm for partnerships and access control during the conference call late last week. It appears likely that NFC still has a role to play for Identiv, but perhaps no longer a starring one.
