Neonode Inc. (NASDAQ:NEON) today announces a new, sharpened strategy with full focus on its licensing business. Consequently, Neonode will phase out its Touch Sensor Module ("TSM") product business through licensing of the TSM technology to strategic partners or outsourcing.
Neonode has been successful in licensing technology historically and the management team sees the largest potential for future growth and profitability in this area. The focus will be on licensing of the advanced MultiSensing platform for driver and in-cabin monitoring and the proven optical sensing technology zForce, including the above-mentioned TSM technology, which supports touch, gesture sensing, as well as object detection features. The recent business win with a leading commercial vehicle manufacturer to supply driver and in-cabin monitoring software to this manufacturer's global range of vehicles, as announced on December 6, demonstrates the competitiveness of MultiSensing and has accelerated Neonode's strategy shift.
Neonode will focus all its efforts and resources on licensing by reallocating marketing, sales, and engineering resources from the product team to the licensing team and by external recruitments. The new strategy will lead to some reductions in the workforce, which mainly will affect consultants and personnel in Sweden and involves customary union negotiations.
"We will now put full focus on our licensing business and allow customers to license our unique and advanced TSM technology to create bespoke products and solutions that bring value to end customers. Our product business did not reach our business goals, but feedback on the products and prototypes that we and our partners have developed using our TSMs has been very positive and shows that our technology is relevant and has a large intrinsic value. We therefore see great potential in licensing this technology to existing and new customers in the years to come," states Dr. Urban Forssell, CEO of Neonode.
"Through the realignment of our strategy that we are now announcing we will concentrate our resources on licensing. We believe this will unleash the full potential of Neonode and increase the impact of our innovative solutions in line with our vision to transform the way humas and machines interact," concluded Dr. Forssell.