VeriChip IPO: Will They Treat The SEC The Way They Treated The FDA?

from the just-wondering dept

Fri, Dec 30th 2005 12:00pm — Mike Masnick

VeriChip, the somewhat infamous subsidiary of Applied Digital, has apparently filed to go public. As the article notes, the company may be leading the way for other RFID-related companies to go public. While the RFID space does have a ton of potential, we've learned to be extremely skeptical of any claims from VeriChip, after the company's history of misstatements and questionable behavior. The company is famous for overhyping its solution for sticking an RFID in your arm for medical purposes -- which serves little purpose since so few hospitals can actually read the data on the chip. Also, at last report, they had a grand total of around 60 customers -- which seems rather small. However, much more importantly is that the company lied about FDA approval of the device blatantly. They put out a press release saying they had approval when all the FDA did was send them a note asking for more info to decide if it needed to be regulated for non-medical uses. When the FDA did say VeriChip could go forward as long as they didn't use it for medical reasons, the company blatantly ignored that and marketed it for medical uses. While the FDA did eventually approve the devices, you have to be pretty skeptical about anything the company claims. This is also the company that put former Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on its board, making him promise to have the device implanted -- something he hasn't done yet. And, this isn't just about the devices, but in their financial dealings as well. IBM lent the company money a few years back, and when Applied Digital couldn't pay back the loan, IBM tried to collect on the collateral (Applied Digital stock). Rather than live up to the agreement, Applied Digital turned around and sued IBM, the company that they had failed to pay back the money they owed. So, sure, they may be the first RFID focused company to IPO, but hopefully how they do won't be seen as representative of the entire industry.

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12 Comments

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Andrew Strasser, 30 Dec 2005 @ 3:02pm

Rf and cancer....
Not sure the whole connection chip whatever type of addition of energy could be a good thing for our bodies really. Though if I could use the lil computer in my mind to surf the net it'd be much easier. Ha ha.
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- George, 31 Dec 2005 @ 1:48am
  
  Re: Rf and cancer....
  Too many people see this as the Mark of the Beast or something. The whole idea of putting something inside your arm to identify yourself is kinda creepy.
  
  Personally, I'd be scared the thing would give me cancer, or worse explode or leak silicon into the bloodstream.
  
  No thanks, I'll pass.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 3 Jan 2006 @ 6:52am
    
    Re: Rf and cancer....
    You know, an implanted chip is absolutely nothing compared with what is routinely put inside of people's bodies to help them.
    
    Pacemakers, hip replacement, spinal corrections, false limbs... All of these have been used inside of people for years. Pacemakers *have* tiny computers inside of them, and it's astounding how smart some of the false limbs are becoming.
    
    I mean, people are eager to have a laser shave away layers of their eye, and yet they're hesitant to insert a tiny metal pill in their skin?
    
    It's not like it needs any power, anyway. If it's just for IDing, it can power itself through EM from the receiver. The rest of the time it's idle and inert.
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    - Ron, 3 Jan 2006 @ 10:46am
      
      Re: Rf and cancer....
      "Pacemakers, hip replacement, spinal corrections, false limbs... All of these have been used inside of people for years. Pacemakers *have* tiny computers inside of them, and it's astounding how smart some of the false limbs are becoming."
      
      True, yet all of those devices are designed to either extend life or enhance it, or provide some critical function the body needs medically. The chip has no such function. It has no direct medical application, rather it helps others to identify you (theoretically) to receive medical care. However, the same function can be achieved through a card in your purse or wallet, or an external tag hanging around your neck, wrist or ankle.
      
      Other applications of the device, and the implications they bring, seem to strike at the very core of the concept of individuality. People want to retain control of identity of the self. In most people's minds, giving up that control means giving up your individuality.
      
      "I mean, people are eager to have a laser shave away layers of their eye, and yet they're hesitant to insert a tiny metal pill in their skin?"
      
      From the data given it would seem so, 60 customers is fairly pathetic. The remainder 6.5 billion people in the world will apparently have nothing to do with it either.
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  - simon, 18 Nov 2006 @ 8:02am
    
    Re: Re: Rf and cancer....
    Creepy?
    
    But millions of us have implants already: silicon breasts (now approved by FDA, again), pacemakers, hip replacements, donated kidneys, lungs etc.
    
    Also, we fry our brain cells (on average 60 minutes a day)
    with rf energy from our cellphones.
    
    I say, we are a creepy race
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david anderson, 13 Jan 2006 @ 10:16pm

thank you for putting out the truth
this technology will be used by our very government in the next few years , it is a very bad thing that only we can slow down. Please keep getting the truth out aboutverichip and applied digital. we don't need our rights and our privacy taken away from us through a chip to be used to monitor our very existence.
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ADSX investor, 16 Mar 2006 @ 9:28am

Ah, you gotta love this company
They have a product with large (although somewhat disturbing) potential, and yet they've managed to completely drive their company into the ground. It's like that girl in high school who was so hot and everybody wanted to go out with her, but then you run into her ten years later and she's all fat and gross and hooked on meth.
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chris, 26 Oct 2006 @ 9:19am

Glucose Monitoring is the Gateway for Verichip
granted, investors dont like the fact that Digital Angel just cant seem to turn a profit, however their gross margins have shown improvement over the years and their 'unusual costs' have over the past year or so shown an overall spike downward. further operations expenses have relaxed somewhat and appear to have stabilised.

with the news of DOC's injectable glucose monitor haveing patent protection the company has now expanded its pipeline of revenue streams

imho this is a huge advance and is a technology that will bring verichip's model into the forefront acting as a gateway of sorts to other implantable services

good luck to all

(disclosure, we have owned DOC on and off for the past several years, have never booked a profit at this time we are back in with a relatively small position)
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Eric Red, 10 Jan 2007 @ 4:03pm

Dont fear the future
SS numbers were the mark of the beast. Licens Plates on your car are the mark of the beast, along with credit cards. Computers and TV are the ruin of man. Come on, get real. Progress and inovation will never be stopped. Human nature tells us this. The Veri Chip will happen. The potential is crazy. Open and start your car with a chip in your hand!! Credit card info, keys, ID, passwords , all in you hand. Never carry a wallet, or set of keys again. Yes there are privicy rights and security issues. They will be over come by some really smart guy in a lab coat. We didnt get to the moon by being scared. We thought bigger, stronger, faster and we did it. The industrial revolution will only end with another dark ages. The veri chip may drive up tward it. But it will happen. The only thing you will get by speaking out about it is maybe being able to say "I told you so" 20 yrs from now.
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Reggie Bush, 21 Jan 2007 @ 8:28pm

ADSX is a POS
The CEO is a piker imho.
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Sure, 10 Feb 2007 @ 12:16pm

Its good to see that a four year old can type, becuase that's all this blog is. A story about how a 4 yearold and thier adventures on the keyboard.
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sjl, 3 Apr 2008 @ 11:17pm

the veri chip
sirs and madams this is a mark which can be related to the mark of the beast, I was reading about these chips and they say they are planing to stop implanting in the arm because the to points in our body with the right temperature 4 these things is the hands and 4head. what am i sayin yu might ask i am saying that in revelation it says that the mark wil be in the right hand or the 4head also the bible says every1 who hath recieved the mark would come out it terrible blisteders and boils, if the chemicals inside the chip break out it causes massive boils on the skin
please read revalations and compare what is happening to what is happening now god return is at hand. dont be left behind 4 his will for you is good not bad god bless you all
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