The i-mate saga is not over yet, according to CEO Jim Morrison. The company has now delisted from Aim (the Alternative Investment Market which is part of the London Stock Exchange) and has returned to private ownership after the last few years clobbered its stock prices.
Interestingly, Morrison blamed much of the stock price decline on short-selling but did not seem to attribute much of the decline to a history of poor quality control, shipment delays, product cancellations and more.
Morrison is now trying to turn things around once more and revealed that he is looking to raise new capital from a number of technology funds. He did not disclose which funds they could be nor how much they were planning to invest. But, it might be enough to allow i-mate to buy its own manufacturing plant in China and possibly buy a software company as well to enhance its product offering. The company also plans to stay focused on the Middle East and a return to North America is not planned for at least a year.
Morrison also promised to “shake-up the mobile phone space” with a new product that will be unveiled at 3GSM in Barcelona early next year. He gave no details so we will just have to see (Have we not been down this path with i-mate before?).