The Company announces the acquisition of the leader in Drone Cinematography to further Accelerate the Delivery of is Unmanned Aircraft Solutions to Key Customers and the Deployment of the FlightGDN Technology Platform.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2022 / Cyberlux Corporation, (OTC:CYBL), an advanced digital technology platform company leading the digital transformation evolution across industries including advanced Unmanned Aircraft Solutions (UAS), announced that the Company has acquired Catalyst Machineworks, LLC, a leader in the highly technical cinematography drone market with established product lines that address the high-end military-grade market, the specialized drone racing market and the high-volume consumer market. Based in Texas, Catalyst Machineworks (CMW) is a leading United States-based drone hardware manufacturer with the intellectual property, technology know-how and production capabilities to deliver true military-grade and law enforcement drone solutions as 100% Made-In-America.
As a result of this transaction, Cyberlux Corporation owns 100% of Catalyst Machineworks, LLC in a transaction comprised of both investment capital and a three year earn-out of shares of common stock with an expected value between $0.05 and $0.25, with the cash component being paid out over an eighteen month investment cycle, including certain equity incentives for continued revenue growth levels, technology and intellectual property development milestones, worldwide customer acquisition objectives and FlightEye solutions implementation milestones over the next four years. CMW brings to Cyberlux an entire UAS hardware technology platform, existing customers and incremental revenue. As a result, the Unmanned Aircraft Solutions business unit will deliver an expected annualized revenue of $22 million USD with an expected growth to over $67 million in revenue by 2024.
With the acquisition of CMW, Cyberlux is accelerating its UAS strategy with an immediate focus on the UAS hardware and software offerings with immediate demand and market scale. The Company is now positioned to build the future of UAS technology and create enormous growth in revenue and profit over the coming years by providing solutions that meet the significant demand for U.S.-manufactured, high-capability drones across U.S. government agencies, law enforcement, and across significant commercial markets such as Cinematography, Oil and Gas, Construction and Real Estate. Cyberlux intends to make ongoing strategic investments in UAS hardware and software development under the FlightEyeGDN platform and to make working capital investments to drive faster global UAS business expansion. A featured sample of Cyberlux UAS products.
CATALYST MACHINEWORKS, LLC BACKGROUND
Founded in 2015 by well-known industry leaders Neill Whiteley and Rick Tucker, Catalyst Machineworks (CMW) has become the leading brand in both Cinematography and Racing drones, which have also met the stringent requirements for Military and Law Enforcement needs. Operating out of Spring, Texas, the CMW drone product lines are highly specialized for performance and mission capabilities, with each drone being built by the best drone builders in the industry to UAS industry-leading quality standards. Over the last seven years, CMW has developed a technology leadership position within the complex, highly competitive Unmanned Aircraft Systems industry and are now recognized as leaders in the First Person View (FPV) Cinematography, Drone Racing and Law Enforcement segments. Driven by their Texas-born entrepreneurial spirit, the CMW Founders have relentlessly focused on creating the best possible drone capabilities by developing the most substantial intellectual property around drone flight, maneuverability, custom engineering and manufacturing, all while delivering best-in-class performance across the entire CMW product line. As one of the very few 100% U.S.-based drone manufacturers, CMW supplies the best FPV Cinema drones in the world to all major movie studios, is a Department of Defense (DoD) UAS supplier, and also a Texas law enforcement drone supplier.
As a result of the acquisition structure, Catalyst Machineworks, LLC is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cyberlux Corporation. Founder Neill Whiteley has been appointed Director of Engineering and CTO, and Founder Rick Tucker has been appointed Director of Operations and COO of the Cyberlux UAS business unit, reporting directly to Cyberlux Executive Vice President and UAS General Manager Larson J. Isely.
Cyberlux Executive Vice President and GM of the UAS business unit Larson J. Isely commented:
"For the last six months, Cyberlux has searched for the very best UAS technologists and our high bar was exceeded when we met the Catalyst Machineworks team. We found an outstanding opportunity with CMW to force-multiply our UAS business strategy with our government, commercial and now, retail customers. I am truly excited and gratified to have Neill and Rick join Cyberlux as our senior leaders of UAS Engineering and Operations. Having designed guidance and flight control systems for both manned and unmanned aircraft, I believe we now have a rare opportunity to create breakthrough UAS hardware, software and solution technology, expand our FlightEyeGDN technology platform, and deliver sustainable product leadership in this exponentially growing UAS industry. With core capabilities CMW's technology brings, with robust intellectual property and driven personnel, plus the experience and know-how that Rick and Neill bring to our team, we will dramatically accelerate our route to market, our technology development and further leverage our strategic partnerships to drive the Cyberlux UAS competitive advantage, positioning our Company as a leader in the UAS industry."
Neill Whiteley, CMW Founder and now UAS business unit Director of Engineering and CTO:
"From the first time we meet Larson and discussed the Cyberlux UAS vision, strategy, and business objectives, we immediately saw a future in which our company could accelerate and scale in ways we never imagined. We're incredibly excited to start this next stage of our UAS design and development journey with leadership roles on the Cyberlux UAS team. Not only do we have the products available now to solve the immediate Cyberlux customer demands, we have the designs and capabilities that will open the biggest market opportunities to our collective team. There is literally no limit to what we will accomplish in the UAS market!"
Rick Tucker, CMW Founder and now UAS business unit Director of Operations and COO:
"Over the last seven years, we have built CMW into the Made-in-the-USA drone powerhouse in our selected markets of Cinematography, Racing and DoD. By joining forces with the Cyberlux team, we can now address all the other market segments we know we can dominate with our CMW know-how, technology and Cyberlux UAS IP. The resources that Cyberlux and Mr. Isely bring to the team allow us to meet major customer needs which our industry has previously left unsolved. Working with a legitimate rocket scientist, our team is now locked, loaded and ready to launch!"
Paul "Nurk" Nurkkala, Cyberlux UAS Chief Test Pilot and DRL 2018 World Champion:
"I have worked hand-in-hand with both Neill and Rick over the last 5 years to help develop the most robust, highest performing cinematography and racing drones on the planet. These guys have more knowledge on how to build winning drone products than anyone else in the UAS industry, and I have worked with the best of the best! I can't wait to see what they do with the incredible capability and resources of the Cyberlux UAS team. I have used Catalyst products almost exclusively for my highest-performance drone needs and could see the fit the moment I realized how serious Cyberlux is about pushing the envelope in the UAS space. The combination of CMW and Cyberlux UAS is truly epic and may certainly be the biggest industry news in 2022."
Cyberlux CEO Mark Schmidt commented:
"With our acquisition of Catalyst Machineworks, LLC, Cyberlux now has the full capability to fulfill our UAS mission and create a long-term competitive advantage in the UAS market, where we expect the market size to grow at CAGR of over 53% and more than double in the next four years from $36 billion in 2022 to $85 billion in 2025," Schmidt stated. "We are extremely excited to have the CMW Founders, Neill Whiteley, Rick Tucker and their whole team join Cyberlux. With Larson's executive leadership driving the UAS business unit and now having two remarkable Founders like Rick and Neill join the UAS team, we will drive our growth objectives at full speed and push our Operation Alpha plans further and faster. With this amazing team in place, I fully expect to accomplish new, significant growth milestones and have our UAS business unit propel Cyberlux to over $100 million in revenue in this vast, rapidly growing market."
The FlightGDN Technology Platform
Cyberlux has introduced the FlightGDN, a global UAS capabilities framework to harness the future of UAS capabilities. FlightGDN is a proprietary technology platform to support compact, high-performance, next-generation military-grade UAS products and UAS solution packages. Encompassing both proprietary Cyberlux and third-party technologies, including LED lighting, infrared night vision capability, thermal sensor technology, "eye-in-the-sky" monitoring capabilities, LiDAR mapping and advanced VR/AR perception technologies, the FlightGDN platform will provide a seamless, scalable UAS solution for both military and commercial UAS command and control operations.
Going forward, the Cyberlux UAS business unit will leverage its core technology capability to provide next-generation performance, industry-focused capability and consumer-focused UAS products. The UAS business unit is immediately focused on existing commercial markets and significant Department of Defense (DoD) requirements, with a research and development focus on geofencing capabilities, "observe and monitor" alert systems, collision avoidance capabilities, beyond-line-of-sight operations, urban area operations, operating system support for multiple drone operation and traffic management, and other critical priorities such as weight optimization and energy efficiency. Cyberlux Corporation is actively pursuing partnerships with UAS technology companies and drone service providers. Moving forward, Cyberlux is harnessing the future through fundamental organic growth, through acquisitions and joint ventures, and through the commercialization of future technology developments.
About Cyberlux Corporation
Cyberlux Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: CYBL) is "Harnessing the Future" by leading digital transformation across global industries, driving operational growth through an accelerated acquisitions and joint ventures strategy, and continuously fueling growth with current and future technology developments, including fundamental organic growth from the Company's four business units - Digital Platform Solutions, Unmanned Aircraft Solutions, Advanced Lighting Solutions, Infrastructure Technology Solutions, targeting U.S. government agencies, commercial markets and international opportunities. For more information, please visit www.cyberlux.com. For investor information, please contact: ir_cybl@cyberlux.com
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "believes," "expects," "potential," "plans," "suggests," "may," "should," "could," "intends," or similar expressions. Many forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results implied by such statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to continue to enhance our products and systems to address industry changes, our ability to expand our customer base and retain existing customers, our ability to effectively compete in our market segment, the lack of public information on our company, our ability to raise sufficient capital to fund our business operations, our ability to continue as a going concern, and a limited public market for our common stock, among other risks. Many factors are difficult to predict accurately and are generally beyond the company's control. Forward-looking statements speak only as to the date they are made, and we do not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made.
SOURCE: Cyberlux Corporation
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