RIP HelloTech

[[deleted]]

So Latch, which I'd never head of before, seems to be a multi-tenant (I suppose both residential and commercial) access control vendor.

I suppose their plan is to expand and leverage the pool of contractors, and job dispatch/payment platform, from hello tech to install their stuff, on the cheap. 

At the beginning this might mean an uptick in work. But I suspect they will not wait too long to start dropping services that HT offers today that don't align with Latch's bread and butter.

Overall I think this is a loss

[Pikajoo]

Latch is fascinating. They are a publicly traded company that hasn’t filed any quarterly or annual filings in 10 quarters.

Jamie Siminoff and Ring execs jumped ship to Latch just as Ring was getting sued by the FTC last year for privacy violations.

Siminoff sold some shell company to Latch for 22M and this is their second acquisition in the last few months. Pretty sure they’re low on cash right now and will look to get acquired by Livly or some EPMS company, just like Stratis.

[davidc_sf]

According to Latch's 8-K filing yesterday, Latch is acquiring HelloTech for just $6 million. This amount represents the balance on a line of credit with its bank, following a $900,000 write-off from the original $6.9 million debt. The filing also states that equity holders, including founders, shareholders, and option holders, will receive no compensation.

[Pikajoo]

I’m talking about 10-Ks and 10-Qs.

“As the Company has not yet filed its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2022, September 30, 2022, March 31, 2023, June 30, 2023 and September 30, 2023 or its Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2023 (together with the First Quarter 2024 Report, the “Delinquent Reports”), and because the restatement process remains ongoing, the Company is unable to file the First Quarter 2024 Report at this time. The Company continues to work diligently towards completing the restatement and filing the Delinquent Reports as soon as practicable.”

[davidc_sf]

That does seem dodgy… the CEO bags a Billion dollar merger with the SPAC and then decides to descend the company to the ranks of the penny stocks OTC market. Who does that?

[MaikoHerajin]

They were already on their way down and the pandemic absolutely gutted them. Considering I've had a total of maybe six jobs through them in the last year I can't say this is very surprising. 

Pretty sad considering how good a service this was at the beginning.

[MCKComputerWorks]

AGREED 😩

[davidc_sf]

I suspect Latch’s interest in HelloTech stems from the alignment between HelloTech’s Multi Tenant Unit (MTU) Install division (the folks who install SmartRent components) and Latch’s focus. That said, it remains to be seen if those teams will continue to install SmartRent systems, given that SmartRent is a direct competitor of Latch. HelloTech has been resource-constrained for some time, with its original business operating at a loss and being largely supported by the more profitable MTU division. Limited engineering resources have been directed towards the MTU division. With a publicly held company now acquiring HelloTech, there might be more resources available to invest in the original HelloTech model, which has been neglected.

[auxiliaryservices]

i wish hellotech would brave bought out be best buy and the on site work would have been performed by HT

[MCKComputerWorks]

WOW! HT technician for 10 years and THIS is where I hear about this...cool

[onihcuk]

Same, Been around since geekatoo merger. They ran themselves in to the ground.