WidePoint Corp (WYY) 2007 Q1 法說會逐字稿

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  • Operator

  • Good afternoon, my name is Coretta and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the WidePoint Corporation first-quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks there will be a question-and-answer period (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Thank you.

  • It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host Ms. Julie Marshall, President of Hawk Associates. Ma'am, you may begin your conference.

  • Julie Marshall - President

  • Thank you, Coretta. Good afternoon. This is Julie Marshall, President of Hawk Associates. Welcome to the WidePoint first-quarter 2007 conference call. On the phone today are Steve Komar, CEO of WidePoint; Jim McCubbin, the Company's Chief Financial Officer; and Dan Turissini, WidePoint's Chief Technology Officer and CEO of Subsidiary ORC.

  • I would like to begin by reading the Company's Safe Harbor statement and then we will hear from Steve, Jim and Dan before they take your questions.

  • This afternoon's discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors not under the Company's control. Those risks may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or other expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include but are not limited to those detailed in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • Now here is Steve with his opening remarks.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Thank you, Julie. I'm Steve Komar and as Chairman and CEO of WidePoint, I'd like to welcome you all to the Company's first-quarter 2007 investor conference call. And to once again thank you for your continued proactive interest in WidePoint. Following my opening comments, I will pass the microphone to Jim who will discuss in more detail the financial results for the first quarter and then onto Dan Turissini to talk about some of the operational and business development aspects of our activities.

  • To begin in SEC filings and a press release issued earlier today, we the Company advised that we achieved $2.9 million in revenue for the quarter ended and that our PKI credential and managed services revenues grew approximately 40% from the prior year comparable quarter. Our Consulting Services revenue grew modestly versus that same comparable quarter reflecting some softness in selected markets.

  • We did realize a net loss. Our net loss per share remained unchanged from the prior year's comparable quarter at -$0.01 per share. Interestingly enough, we realized a small modest but positive cash flow provided from our operating activities for the quarter. Jim will obviously expand on this in greater detail in his comments.

  • In terms of events, during the first quarter of 2007, literally no major HSPD-12 PKI contracts were awarded by the Federal Government. Early in April, the GSA reawarded its HSPD-12 managed services contract ORC was not on the winning team. However, that contract has been protested a second time and its future and timing are in doubt. This event has no doubt contributed to the delay in Federal Agency decision making as regards to HSPD related solutions on a year-to-date basis.

  • On the other hand at quarter end, ORC signed a substantial funded contract with a major government integrator providing for an enterprisewide PKI based Smart ID system. That contract and this relationship is already underway and well into the implementation phase. This event along with what we are seeing as increased activity at the state and local level for Federally compliant PKI certificates, have been the focal points of our recent marketing efforts. Dan will expand on these and other business development activities in his comments.

  • Looking forward for a moment, we believe that we remain well-positioned competitively, that pricing for ECA and ACES certificates and services have remained steady. And that increased demand from integrators and state and local governments may well offset much of the delayed implementations by the federal agencies.

  • With that, I'd like to thank you for your attention and pass the microphone to Jim.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Hello, everyone. My name is Jim McCubbin. I'm the Company's Chief Financial Officer. The first quarter of 2007 was a very productive quarter for us at WidePoint as Steve has pointed out. We won several contracts and renewals, started several joint ventures and new services areas associated with Homeland Security and first responder programs and continue to witness additional incremental growth within our ECA program along with realizing an approximate renewal rate of 80% on our ECA credentials year-over-year, all positive events priming the pump we believe for future financial success for the Company.

  • On the financial front as a result of the delay associated with the Federal Government's budget issues and subsequent rebidding of the GSA's HSPD-12 contract during the quarter as we had discussed in our recent annual call, of course delayed some of the recent positive momentum associated with revenue growth from the past quarter. This should not come as a surprise but given our vision into those matters at the time, we still were responsive enough to focus on other revenue producing areas of the business and continued our quarter-over-quarter comparative positive performance. Given the marketplace we are working within, we will at times see choppiness given both seasonality and contract delays and awards.

  • Moving on and given these events, revenues for the three-month period ended March 31, 2007, were approximately $2.8 million as compared to approximately $2.7 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2006. The increase in revenues were primarily attributable to growth within our PKI credentialing and managed service segment augmented by a slight increase within our Consulting Services segment.

  • Our PKI credentialing and managed services segment experience revenue growth of approximately 40% with revenues increasing approximately $87,000 from approximately $223,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2006 to approximately $310,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2007. We issued 2843 PKI credentials for the three months ended March 31, 2007 as compared to 1733 PKI credentials for the three months ended March 31, 2006. We do believe that PKI credential sales should continue to increase as we fulfill recent contract wins and we witness the continued adoption of the ECA program by the Department of Defense and the HSPD-12 program as further rolled out and adopted by the Federal Government agencies and departments.

  • Looking at cost of sales, we witnessed a slight increase in our costs primarily attributable to higher fringe benefit costs along with slightly higher direct labor costs. Some of those costs were directly found within our PKI segment as we went through additional annual audit costs and some updates that drove costs up within that segment. Of the cost increases we witnessed, we believe they were relatively minor in comparison to the upside and potential future award opportunities that we believe we will experience in the future.

  • Looking at SG&A, we also witnessed a slight increase primarily attributable to higher bid and proposal costs and some additional non-recurring legal expenses associated with contract document review costs. The increased investment in the bid and (inaudible) cost we do believe represents money well spent given the potential opportunities. And while we do attempt to manage the resources of the Company efficiently, we do choose to make these investments as we are attempting to build and grow the Company. We do, as a team, believe making these investments and continuing to do so is in the best interest of all of our stakeholders.

  • The remaining other costs within depreciation and interest income net did not materially change and as a result, we did realize a net loss for the three-month period ending March 31, 2007 of approximately $376,000 or $0.01 per share as compared to the net loss of approximately $258,000 or $0.01 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2006.

  • Given these events, we still managed to provide net cash from operating activities for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 as Steve had said of approximately $3000 and factoring and amortization and 123(R) expenses of approximately $173,000, we witnessed a net loss excluding those items of approximately $203,000. Again, we have done this all while making additional investments within the Company.

  • So, ladies and gentlemen, for the quarter we grew revenues within both segments of our business, won additional contracts, positioned the Company with additional partners and opportunities while maintaining cash and cash equivalents at approximately $2.7 million, working capital of approximately $3.5 million and occurring no senior debt. As a result of our actions and performance in the first quarter of 2007, we continue to maintain the financial base upon which to continue to execute our business strategy in 2007.

  • That is the wrap up from the financial review of the Company for the first quarter 2007. So here is back to you, Steve. Thank you very much.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Thank you, Jim, appreciate it. I'd like to now pass it on to Dan Turissini as advertised to talk about some of the activities during the quarter and some of our business development activities. Dan, if you would.

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • Thank you. Good afternoon. We want to start by talking a little bit about what we've been doing and where we've been focusing over the last quarter. As a some of you may, I've gotten a lot of phone calls over the last couple of months, we are in the process of reconstructing and rebuilding some of our expiring entities and going through our audit processes so we've been spending a lot of time working and enhancing our capabilities and providing our true full availability and superior services to our customer base.

  • Our customer group base has still been growing at a constant yet not dramatic rate as of yet. Steve spoke first about the HSPD-12 efforts and we see that the GSA efforts and where they've gone with their managed service offering has slowed down the adoption of HSPD-12 within the government. So in the past three months what we've done is turned our focus back to the other pieces of this opportunity including those affected with the ECA program and the ACES program.

  • But not to leave that bed yet, we did win an effort with a major contractor to the Federal Government who his building and going to use our managed service for their own internal PIV implementation where they will be able to use these capabilities both inside their environment and outside. And on our current customer base, our Federal Trade Commission contract not only renewed the next year's annuity, but increased the user base from last year.

  • On the other fronts, we've been very active with numerous systems integrators, focusing on deploying the first responder credentials that are necessary and being promoted out of the Department of Homeland Security in the state and local municipalities. We are working with a lot of the IT integrators that are already in place in many of these locations and are bringing us on board as the Federal compliant authentication mechanism for these folks.

  • We are in the middle of deploying an initial 3000 credentials in several states in a small pilot and we are looking at that as a huge growth area over the next 12 to 18 months.

  • On the ECA front again, we're seeing steady growth almost doubled from last year as a monthly occurrence of not only renewals but new customers in that space. We are working directly with the Department of Defense on increasing the need and the mandate requirements. As many of you saw last year, there was a mandate that was put out for July; there was some confusion I guess on how that was being enforced. And we are working with the DoD to get stronger language out of the department relative to the use for signing e-mail and other applications throughout the DoD.

  • Finally, we are working with various other industries that are now looking toward this Federal capability and this Federal compliance to meet the mandates of things such as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley and the accountability rules required by the Federal Government and that includes the healthcare, insurance and hospitalities industries.

  • And finally, we've been doing some work on the Hill, helping some of the lawmakers in this area craft the words necessary to help with the deployment, the mandating and as well as the enforcement to work with the protection and help with the protection of the citizen's identity throughout the country. So again, we are seeing a constant and steady growth throughout the space. However, we've not seen the dramatic growth yet that we hoped to see and as it leaves to HSPD-12, we see that as somewhat slower. And where we thought this was going to be a leader in '07, it looks like that is going to be a follower so we're going to focus more on the ECA and ACES programs.

  • That is the summary and we look forward to your questions and I pass it back to Steve.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Thank you, Dan, I appreciate that. I think that we are about ready to open the floor to question-and-answer. And if I could ask Coretta, the operator, to help us out with that?

  • Operator

  • (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) [Sam Donaldson], a private investor.

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • I have a question that if I understood all of the designations that you have been discussing probably the answer is already there. But since I don't, let me ask it in general terms and see if you could answer in general terms. This time last year there was great optimism. We had been certified by the GSA to receive contracts and to have government entities make contracts with us for what I understood to be very possible lucrative business because of the President's directive for certificates that all of the branches of the government would need.

  • And I think at that time, we were optimistic to believe that we would get, if I remember the quote, perhaps 60% of the business. And of course our stock price reflected that optimism. Not my general question is the setbacks that we've experienced and I understand some of them far beyond the control of our management, are these setbacks that appear to be temporary which we can overcome and once again be positioned to be the dominant provider in a very lucrative field? Or has the landscape changed so that now we're in a much more tougher competitive position and it may not be that easy?

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • I think the answer to that question is we are still very optimistic and I think we still have a very strong hold and I don't doubt that we can still attain a 60% of this market. The problem has been that the market has not come in a timely fashion at this time. So, it's not that we are losing dramatically. As a matter of fact, the tasking that has been funded we have a lion's share of. But for some reason and as you know, the way politics goes and I think a lot of it is attributed to the budget problems we had this year in Congress as well as the war, the money has just not flown as readily as we hoped.

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • If I may follow up, if that's permitted? I understood the budget crunch -- that is what I meant by something we couldn't control. But if I understand you correctly a, these government entities must at some point buy these certificates and will have to have the funds from this new Congress I take it to do so. And b, you are then saying to us that we are still in roughly the fine position that you thought we were in last year when this budget crunch wasn't present?

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • That is correct.

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • Thank you.

  • Operator

  • Gerald Farber, Robeco.

  • Gerald Farber - Analyst

  • You said in passing that HSPD-12 is now a follower rather than a leader. And what timeframe -- what thoughts do you have just following the prior discussion, what evidence and what timing might there be in terms of mandatory commitment, budget flow in this area? Could you -- or is this for some reason a permanent impairment of the total program or if not, can we put some framework on how long the delay has been? When must the delay cease and when should funding pick up and when should activity pick up for you guys?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • So the simple answer to that question is a small lesson on government budgeting and the funding process. Here we are midyear through the year and for most of the year Congress did not approve a fiscal year '07 budget which meant they were on continuing resolution. Each month they gave them enough money just to get by. Some time a couple of weeks or months ago they decided they were going to be on a continual continuing resolution which basically said we're going to fall back to '06 budget and you're not going to get the money you requested for '07. So the levels money were set and backed down to '06.

  • And my understanding was even worse than that. It was mostly only operational and maintenance. There was no new program money. They did that because they were so far into the year and they decided rather than try to ferret out and work out '07, they were going to be diligent and work hard on '08. So if we can trust Congress, what that means is that the money that was budgeted for but not funded in '07 and some of the money for '08 should be reclaimed and assigned out of Congress by October 1 of this year.

  • Gerald Farber - Analyst

  • Okay. Now there is within the Homeland Security Act I believe, help us out here, mandatory adoption of the various stipulations and regulations at some point in the future. That is an enacted law I presume. What it is the timeframe on that? And I think you said that we really should be thinking about activity picking up some time toward October of this year given the budgetary cycle. But can you just overlay the mandatory aspects of the Act and when agencies must conform to that?

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Yes, the directive outlines a schedule that the next milestone is October 28 of this year which at that time all employees with less than five years and newly hired employees will have the new credential. And then by October of the following year, '08, all government employees were supposed to have that.

  • Now as you can imagine and you can do the queuing, we are as a government we are collectively behind on that goal. There is not a full funding for the capability to be completed by -- or the partial milestone to be completed by this October so the hope is that FY '08 money will be available to make that up and complete the full mandate by October 28 of '08.

  • Gerald Farber - Analyst

  • So that is the likely scenario?

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • That is the scenario that the government has provided.

  • Gerald Farber - Analyst

  • One of the recent events -- just one final follow-up -- was that I believe GSA has recently made some movements in the space which may generate activity with GSA finally granting some contracts or something to that effect. Is that of any consequence and what is that all about?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • As Mr. Komar started off his discussion about, they did reaward an old contract that was originally awarded to Bearing Point, protested and then denied. The contract was taken away. It was reissued recently to EDS. It is currently under protest so there's not a whole lot else I can say about that. Even if -- but the bottom line is -- even if that is completed it only offers right now maybe 400,000 credentials and it won't be issuing until later this summer.

  • Gerald Farber - Analyst

  • Okay, thank you.

  • Operator

  • Peter Spinner, Trellus Capital.

  • Peter Spinner - Analyst

  • A couple of questions. Quick ones. Just first, trying to explain maybe I didn't understand with that October deadline, is your sense that there's going to be at least some -- last year we kind of got a free for all , well not a free for all -- a real push into that deadline. Will that be much less this year? Do you think?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • I don't understand the question, less of what?

  • Peter Spinner - Analyst

  • Coming into that deadline with the budget problems we've had to this point, assuming they get money to spend by that deadline, I mean you don't have a lot of time. So what are the next couple of months going to look like?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • That is hard to tell. The wild-card right now as the war and that's where all the budget talk is being done about right. And the bottom line is on the government side, right now we are only talking about this 3 million users out of the opportunity of 15 to 17 million. But on that piece right now if the President doesn't get what he needs out of Congress, he's going to go and get the money for the war out of the rest of the government. And the government is holding onto that. They all know this is a possibility and they are all waiting to make final decisions before the gauntlet comes down and I guess the basket gets passed around.

  • So we are just in a funny budget situation right now and the wild-card is the war. Tomorrow Congress could just grant all the money that the President is asking for and that will relieve the hold on the monies that is out their right now throughout the government.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Peter, that is one of the reasons, this is Jim, that we've been making sure that we focus on the whole portfolio of opportunities out there. The DoD environment, the first responder environments, the other environments which are larger than HSPD-12 for the non DoD agencies are still saying momentum and seeing funding and money and that is where we have been smart enough to kind of make sure we've been positioned very strongly.

  • So we believe HSPD-12 is going to happen in '07 and '08. The GSA believes it. The GSA still wants to roll out 2 million users in that environment. But at the same time, we're not going to rely upon just that in building out this business space when we have a very large other area that we can be focusing on as well. And an area where we've been continually successful.

  • Operator

  • [Peter Finnican], a private investor.

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • Thank you. Could you explain the contract that's in dispute -- is WidePoint party to that dispute or is it -- someone you mentioned EDS and Bearing Point?

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Peter, we can tell you succinctly that WidePoint is not involved in that contract nor is it involved in many protests of that contract.

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • But my understand then I guess is that contract then holding up the process for lack of a better understanding of what the significance of that dispute is?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • It adds to the confusion of what people need to do to go forward, absolutely.

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • Got you. Okay. And the resolution of that I know we can never predict the vagaries of disputes between governments and prior vendors, but is there any resolution in sight?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • And what you've got to look at is what does resolution mean?

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • True.

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • One of the things we are doing and banking on because our marketing activities continue in this space and we are getting some of the small agencies interested in joining up with what we are doing, one of the resolutions is that it's not resolved and everybody goes their own way. The government is trying to do some coordinated efforts -- that is not always efficient in the government. So we have separate offerings that "compete with this", all sponsored by GSA. The bottom line is, yes, it's adding to confusion and making it harder for the decision-makers to make a final decision.

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • I guess my last comment is it seems that the stock has been under a tremendous amount of pressure lately. Obviously there is nothing you guys can do about that other than just the results of the Company which would underpin the stock price. Does there seem to be any -- have there been any particular groups that have shown up on your doorstep demanding anything? Have you heard from any groups that own the stock?

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • I'm sorry, you mean--

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Current investors.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Current investors?

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • Yes.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • So your question is have there been any large investors showing up at our door?

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • No, I mean I realize that Carl Icahn is not going to show up at your door at any particular moment. Let's hope the company gets big enough to where he would be interested. But are there any holders like that are doing a Carl Icahn and calling up and giving pressure? There seems to be tremendous pressure on the stock. It goes down every day.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • All of our shareholders to date have been very supportive. They've called up and asked questions and we've been very helpful in trying to answer those questions and communicative. But there has been nobody who has been -- I think you are saying aggressive or an activist shareholder trying to make or elicit changes?

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • Yes. There has been no group shown up I assume?

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • No, not that we are aware of.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • No, Peter.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Everybody has been extremely supportive.

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • I've been buying the stock every day going down so --.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • There's probably a little bit of an element of frustration here tied to the question that we all talk about which we called the when question. That frustration is felt here with your management team I think no more, no less than with our investors. But we have not -- to answer your question specifically -- no, we have not experienced anything like that.

  • Peter Finnican - Private Investor

  • No, there's no question -- I've been an investor for a while and I own hundreds of thousands of shares of your stock. When there's no news, stocks go under pressure. It is unfortunate the way that happens. But I'm still enthusiastic about your story. I hope it works out and I thank you for your time.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Thank you, Peter.

  • Operator

  • (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) [Sean Carey], [Excel Risk Management]

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • Good afternoon, gentlemen. Some of the questions I had people have already asked and you guys have done a great job in answering. I did I suppose from everyone that has spoken thus far there does seem to be a certain amount of confusion because the story has changed a certain amount. I believe you guys have a great story. I think it needs to be retold and reexplained.

  • Are there any plans in the future to get out there and tell the investment community really what's going on at WidePoint because obviously the HSPD-12 thing is as you've just that is going to be more of --is going to be put in play later been scheduled. Because I think people are a little bit confused as to what the potential for your other parts of your business are going forward because a lot was -- a lot of last year was talking about the possible impact of HSPD-12.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Sean, this is Jim. Yes, we will be reaching out and making sure that we work on our communications as this develops. The first quarter you are aware has been very quiet. We've also had to be very strategic in what we say and not say to make sure we win the awards that -- and you saw -- you witnessed some things that we announced today. We are being somewhat generic because we don't want to be protested. We don't want to tip off our competitors to what it is that we are doing and where we are being successful. But as that news comes out and we have things to talk about, we are going to talk about it more.

  • If everything does start moving, we will have a whole lot more to communicate to both our original set of stakeholders as well as potentially a new set of stakeholders.

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • And looking at such information sources as [GC] and [Dotcom] for government computer news and on, they seem to be rather bullish still on HSPD-12. I suppose that since we have this -- another deadline in October or potential deadline, what is the guaranteed that that deadline will be held in place? Do we start shooting Federal employees if they don't do it?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • We are only laughing because it's funny.

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • No I was being serious, actually.

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • No you are not, Sean, that is not going to happen and it's not the employees that are at issue or holding anything up. (multiple speakers)

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • Or even better, politicians.

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • Right it's the decision-makers. No, I think what we are looking at is and one thing we've got to do better -- we started this story talking about more of a government-wide and citizen-based and business to government environment and this really started talking about ACES and ECA and working with the government and all of those transactions. Unfortunately inside the Beltway, HSPD-12 had become its own animal. The rags you are talking about like GS and FCW, they are all in the Beltway papers and there is a whole lot of more attention that needs to be paid to do the first responders, to the state and local municipalities and what is necessary.

  • I was just reading this afternoon some -- I'm catching up on some of my reading on some of the things that are going on throughout the country and with the identity fraud and the problems we are having with transactions all over the country. Somebody was showing me an article that said more than 100 million individuals have been touched by identity fraud since 2005.

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • I read the same article, yes. I saw that.

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • That is just dramatic. We all fall in the same thing, where everything inside this Beltway seems to be news. But it's really just a microcosm of what's going on all over the place and we really need to focus on that. So that is what we're going back, we're going back to our roots on that story and we will be going around telling that story some more.

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • A couple of questions I'd touch on. I was reading in the New York Times this week how the Real Idea Act is being pushed forward even though some attorney generals for about seven states have signed off they are not going to comply but I think they're going to have to be unless the citizens are going to flash passports to get on domestic flight. Are we in that space? Is that something that -- I know I've probably asked this question before -- but is that something that we're concentrating on? Is it something that's going to flow to our bottom line at some time in the future?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • It is a space that we are working toward.

  • Julie Marshall - President

  • Sean, we have a couple more questions we need to move on to.

  • Sean Carey - Analyst

  • Okay. Thanks, guys.

  • Operator

  • [Frank Bianco], Veritas.

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • Hey, guys, its Frank Bianco from Veritas. Can you just touch on the consulting business a little bit here and bring us up to speed on the trends there and what visibility you have going out through the end of the year and into '08?

  • Dan Turissini - CTO and CEO of Subsidiary ORC

  • As you know, we've got two consulting businesses, the Federal and commercial. On the Federal side, we are seeing a steady and small growth in that area. I think we announced at the last phone call this managed validation and translation service which has opened a lot of doors in the systems integration and configuration of applications that are going to be ready for these credentials such as the PIV credential and the ACES and ECA credential. That has also been increased within the Department of Defense area.

  • So what we are seeing as much and a little bit extra interest in that not only within the government space but also in the public market, a lot of the businesses that we deal with and I'm talking about the big integrators and some small government contractors that host data and host e-mail stuff and do back-and-forth transactions with the Federal Government are starting to pick up in that vein. So we are seeing a lot of that.

  • On the commercial side again, still steady. We've not been able to on the pure commercial side with the healthcare industry and stuff like that, we have not gotten huge traction with porting our PKI over there but we are still seeing steady IT consulting work out of that space.

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • Okay, if I'm staring at my model here, how should I project out numbers? Should I just assume modest steady growth over last year's total?

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Franks, let me -- this is Jim. Last year, we really focused on the whole PKI managed segment to get it up. And we didn't spend a whole lot of time or focus on that consulting segment business. We're trying to give it a little bit more attention this year while the PKI business and segment continues to grow. As we said all along, that has been the underlying business that's been giving us the opportunity to fund this. So we've -- while we're looking for some growth, we haven't been also focusing all of our attention there.

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • It's good to hear --

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • I hope that helps.

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • That helps. And if I can get another question in. Do you want me to ask a question or just get back in queue?

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • No. Go ahead, Frank.

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • I know HSPD-12 has taken a back seat to some other opportunities, if you will. Can you talk about the pricing on the state or the corporate side versus -- the I think it's the $40 to $60 range that you think this will come out on?

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Frank, do you mean the differences between the DoD pricing and say HSPD-12 pricing? Is that what you are referencing?

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • Yes. Start there, yes.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • As you have witnessed through various quarters of our market segmentation, our pricing, there's great variety in pricing going from as low as $27.50 all the way up to $150. More of the focus on the segmentation, if you look at the smaller issuances on the 2000 to 3000 that continue to grow, there are at much higher price points related to the DoD in higher secured environments. The higher price points are within the ECA environment, within the hopefully the first responder environments over that of the HSPD-12 is what we have been witnessing.

  • Okay? And the marketplace opportunities are just as large in both. As you can see, we've focused our attention in the first quarter where they were spending money, and where they were spending money was associated with this ECA program and where they continue to because it is tied into national security.

  • Frank Bianco - Analyst

  • Okay. Thank you.

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • First of all, like one of the previous speakers, I intend to stick with WidePoint, as Jim McCubbin knows. I'm in my eighth year. I see no reason to give up now.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • That's great, Sam. We appreciated the (multiple speakers).

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • Well, I believe in you. Second, you talk about acquisitions. Are you seriously considering at the moment acquisitions? I know you can't tell us what but my real question is how would we pay for it and particularly would you consider requesting the issuance of more stock?

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Sam, I have to tell you what is happening at this end. We are looking at one another and we are all -- everyone wants to answer that question more than the other guy. So.

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • Well, choose one.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • I will restrain and I will let McCubbin talk to that one.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Sam, if and when we would do an acquisition, it would have to be an extremely accretive acquisition that would have a very, very strong fit. We are not in strategy mode to do a rollup or a buildout. And we would have to really take it to you guys to get your approval first. So net-net, we don't have any decisions made on doing one on how we would do one, what we would do if we did come across one. We can tell you that if we do do anything on an asset purchase or anything, it would be highly accretive for all of us together because all of us are shareholders and it wouldn't be dilutive.

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • Good enough.

  • Jim McCubbin - CFO

  • Okay?

  • Sam Donaldson - Private Investor

  • Good enough.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Thank you, Sam. Appreciate it.

  • Operator

  • Thank you. We will now turn the floor over to management for closing remarks.

  • Steve Komar - CEO

  • Well, I would just say in summary that I think we've had a good call with some tough questions and also a fair amount of substantial support which I know I speak for all of us which we really appreciate. And we will be working real hard to improve trends and to make future conference calls much more of a picnic. And hopefully have some substantially satisfied investors as we look into the second half of the year.

  • We thank you again for your support and on behalf of my comrades here, I will say so long and talk to you in 90 days.

  • Operator

  • This concludes today's WidePoint Corporation conference call. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.