'Clowns' Allege Ubiquiti 'Completely Fraudulent'

Ubnt surely has a unique business model that outsiders wouldn't understand. As an outsider, I can understand how these guys don't "get it". If your entire perspective about this company is built on a misunderstood market as a foundation, your whole evaluation will be skewed as well. They do look like clowns. 

I've met dealers and installers who swear by their EdgeMAX routers.  I know of no other option if you want a managed PoE router of that size.   (note that their micro PoE routers are passive PoE though).

They seem to be solid products and work as advertised.

This presenter should look a lot closer to home...masquerading as someone that knows what they are talking about and disparaging a successful company. Fraud is a very strong word and I would not be in the least bit surprised if Ubiquiti were to go down the legal route on this one.

Someone should turn this guy Andrew Left on to Knightscope

Netgear, Cisco, and Google.

 

Where does one obtain a Google switch? 

 

Joking aside, I know they built their own servers back in the day, and I wouldn't be surprised if they built their own switch gear, but this guy lumping Google next to Cisco demonstrates his expertise perhaps?

I will say Im amazed that Ubiquiti is so popular given they have no sales team and mostly really on community support forums for tech support. Seems like every tech business owners dream to have such a business model. 

Ok, I'm convinced, the Citron report on $UBNT is a total FRAUD.

It's interesting to me that in the research Citron did, they don't mention product pricing and how that plays/played a big role in UBNT appeal.

The company is not really a tech innovator, they commoditize existing tech.

In my time as an integrator, I remember one could buy a $2000+ radio from Cisco or a $200 UBNT device that satisfied the same core functions well.

The only real issue I have with Ubiquiti is there lack of tech support and their training is ridiculously expensive. Through real pains we found if we buy these through Scansource then they will help design and offer support and training as well.

Buy Ubiquiti antennas they are a fine product, even if you hate Hikvision (which if you know me you know my stand there) those folks have stood behind several problems systems we have encountered in our Tower maintenance and Cellular communications division where other way, way, more expensive antennas never worked right and Ubiquiti worked from day one and still does.

We use the UBNT wifi bridges quite a bit with our IP camera systems as many of our jobs are in agricultural applications... need to link to the outbuildings.  Found them to be very reliable and relatively inexpensive.

UBNT fills a void with pricing. No one is claiming the technology is unique, it's just attainable.

If they wouldn't have, someone else would have eventually

This guy is the mayor of clowntown.  He literally has no idea who Ubiquiti's customer base is. Their products are solid and we have been using them for a couple of years now.  There were some challenges, but nothing that we haven't had with other manufacturers.  Given the choice between a slick, intuitive, and cost effective product OR a highly paid C-Suite and sales force bombarding me with calls and emails, it's a no-brainer.   

Clowns is literally a compliment. The guy has not even basic understanding of either financial, corporate growth or technology. Not even sure why he's getting this much of attention.

Ubiquiti, simply sell enterprises level networking at consumer pricing. Simple as that.

In addition they have zero technical support except monitoring their forums. This means, unless you know what you are doing, you are out in the ocean on your own. Granted, the forums are very active and responsive.

This business model allowed Ubiquiti to penetrate the market aggressively and put some serious concerns with their competition

That being said, there isn't much of margins for dealers but that's a different discussion.

As a company we replaced our entire internal infrastructure with Ubiquity Switches and Wifi products. In the 22 years I have worked here we have never had a more stable environment!! It is extremely easy to configure.

We have also installed the Ubiquity products in many customer sites; using their switches, wifi, and especially their PtP and PtMP products. Again, these sites have been extremely stable. No other wireless/network company seems to compare to their product line in what they offer: stability, usability, and PRICE POINT!!! There price points are so competitive it is hard to go with anyone else. I'm usually not the type of person that is this much of a "fan" of a product or company, but it is hard not to be from a Business perspective and the solutions that they have provided.

This is a common tactic with research firms. They do some research, hit the high points about the company, then claim a smoking gun with FRAUD in big letters to bolster their short position.

Sometimes it is wildly successful, especially if their fraud claims coincide with an unimpressive or bad quarter in terms of performance relative to market expectations.

This is way, way more airtime than these goons deserve. The more publicity they get, the more likely their trolling scheme ends up working.

I don't trust anyone who stitches their initials on the FRONT of their shirt!

Update: Citron research has released an update with 10 questions that are much more focused on real potential issues:

Again, we cannot attempt to answer the cash flow questions but, at least, these questions are more relevant to potential fraudulent activities than basketball and Jim Cramer criticisms.

Interestingly, UBNT stock is back to ~$55 which was were it was before Citron's report, so far then UBNT has whethered these allegations well.

Ubiquiti seemed to suffer from some serious quality control issues several years ago that made us switch to Deliberant/Ligowave and we've been with them ever since. Same price and we get actual tech support. But I respect Ubnt and I'm sure they've overcome whatever issues they had or they wouldn't still have the same following that they do today.

As for not getting a "high five" endorsement from Cramer....

Cramer "Bear Stearns is fine! Do not take your money out [of Bear Stearns]!... That's just being silly!"

I think not getting and endorsement from Jim Cramer could be a good thing (in the contrarian way).

I watched the 3 hour webcast with investment analysts today.  It had previously been scheduled prior to the Citron report.  After a few technical snafus at the beginning, it consisted of Pera alone giving about an hour powerpoint on his vision and unique business model, and then fielding questions for about 2 hours.  The stock dropped almost 3 bucks at the early part of his conference and then recovered half of it and  leveled out. Most of the questions were surprisingly soft.  No hostility or accusatory tones from the questioners.  He seems at peace that the market will give them what it will.  If it trades the stock down, then he'll buy stock back.   His corporate governance is based on simplicity and cost savings.  He has the minimum amount of board members legally required because he doesn't think they really accomplish much.

One side note that I think you'll find interesting is when an analyst asked him about security cameras.  He spent a lengthy amount of time on the subject and seemed to really know what he was talking about in the details.  Said nothing had frustrated him more than video security.  He says he saw the vision back around 2007 and wanted to be a big player.  He mentioned the market then was Pelco, Sony, Milestone, and to some degree emerging Axis, which were solid but expensive.  Said they just didn't execute correctly.  Decided to focus the software on some open source, Zoneminder, and it didn't work as planned.  Eventually revamped the software, but the market had been somewhat dominated by HIK and Dahua.  They arrived to where he had hoped to.  Still sold about a million cameras, a tribute to the brand identity.  Thinks there might be some potential in an enhanced user experience, which I took to mean software, but likely not a huge focus going forward.  

What piqued my interest from the initial report was always the potential financial engineering, not the validity of the products.

Update: Ubiquiti's stock is now back over what it was before Citron Research accused them of being fraudulent.

Now, Citron has moved onto Shopify, video below:

Final update: Ubiquiti's stock is now ~16% higher / ~$9 more than the day before this short seller published.

Maybe this guy was on to something.

Ubiquiti Networks stock sinks after disclosure of SEC subpoenas

I’ve been trying to find more info on the subpoenas, with no luck.  I look at this as a great opportunity to buy some more shares, but I might be an idiot.  I can see how people would assume that there is something afoul when a company can consistently show increasing sales without having a sales team, that doesn’t make any sense unless you are a customer of theirs and understand how they operate.

2 thoughts, and I'm very pro Ubiquiti.  

1.a Not alleging some sort of conspiracy, but it is curious that these items requested by the SEC almost mirror exactly the main bullet points of Left's hit piece.  User community size, distributor relationships, etc.  

1.b  A very large poison pill drop dead date is imminent (end of this month, I think) on the buy/sell of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team. This will personally affect the CEO as he will either sell his majority interest, or have to by the other largest 2 shareholders.  The price of NBA teams have skyrocketed in the last 12 months.  Could this be a timing coincidence to negatively affect Pera in some form or fashion?

2. There is always concerns when the SEC is issuing subpoenas, so tread cautiously.  I do think UBNT over inflated their user community numbers, but that's not really financially material.  Even less so than Facebook or Twitter who make money depending on the size of their communities and were discovered to have tons of fake bot accounts.

And finally, FWIW, Wells Fargo just upped their credit extension to UBNT (since the Left hit piece) to $500 million.  I would think that WF did their due diligence.  UBNT doesn't appear to need cash, it has never issued a secondary, it has bought a great deal of stock back, and continues post profits.  If this were a scam, one would think they would have run out of cash at some point long ago.  

Owning UBNT stock for the long haul is not for the feint of heart...

Good luck to all  :)