July 5, 2005...Summer is always a good time to carefully rethink your company status and stature and maybe make a few changes. Sometimes the changes are subtle shifts; other times they're dramatic.

Reasons summer is such a good time to enact changes may include: a) the summer slowdown permits inward focus, b) shareholders and customers aren't hovering over you as they do during the spring and fall, and... c) when you announce said changes, they get pretty good play in the secular media because we're hungry for news in the summer. Especially this summer because business, industry-wide, continues to be rather slow.

Recent news out of AXT and Aixtron caught my eye as examples of companies undergoing change. These are two mainstay suppliers to the compound semi and solid state lighting industries. Business doesn't get more basic than substrates (AXT) and MOCVD reactors and epiwafers (Aixtron).

Both AXT and Aixtron appear to be taking advantage of the summer lull to restructure, based on major shifts. AXT, having shed its LED operation, has recharged their management structure (ref: our July 4th coverage) as they complete their manufacturing shift from Silicon Valley to Beijing. AXT has long traded their stock over the Nasdaq exchange in the USA under the symbol AXTI.

Having completed their merger with Genus (ref: our March 11 coverage), Aixtron's stock now trades on the Nasdaq exchange in the USA in addition to the German exchange. Aixtron's new Nasdaq stock symbol is AIXG. Interestingly and probably simply coincidence, AXT and Aixtron have traded a few key employees over the past year.

I view the changes at both AXT and Aixtron as very positive for both companies and for the industries they serve. These are the industries we champion at CompoundSemi News and LIGHTimes. Therefore, I'm publicly announcing my intent to purchase my usual very modest number of shares in AXT and Aixtron, adding them to my humble CS stock portfolio, which I announced in May (ref: May 5, 2005 McD Report) and detailed in June (ref: June 1, 2005 McD Report).

Being the upfront, ethics-minded columnist that I am, I'll wait an appropriate period from now to purchase my whopping 100 shares of each (my standard for the initial 11). That way, if the prices shoot up suddenly because of my publicly-stated support for them (dream on), I'll be beyond reproach. The best we can find, that's the accepted protocol. Plus, any time I write about one or more of the companies in which I've invested, I'll state my holding status.

The addition of AXT (AXTI) and Aixtron (AIXG) bring my total to what I affectionately now call my Lucky 13. The others are: Emcore (EMKR), Cree (CREE), TriQuint (TQNT), Color Kinetics (CLRK), Anadigics (ANAD), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), Spire (SPIR), RF Micro Devices (RFMD), Kopin (KOPN), WJ Communications (WJCI), and Vitesse (VTSS). How has the lot been doing? Pretty predictably, actually. In the brief period I've held shares in the above initial 11, the majority have steadily risen. In most cases, however, they were priced so low at purchase (in May/June) there was no direction for their price per shares to go but up! That's why I finally got in on the action. They were affordable. The same can be said for the prices of AXTI and AIXG. The coolest thing about the portfolio, however, is getting the annual reports promptly and all those interesting notices about shareholder votes. Actually investing provides a whole other side of a company's communication that journalists seldom see.

These are long term holds for me because I purposely selected only those companies I truly believe will be around, and healthy, years from now. Watching their growth as an interested and involved shareholder (instead of just a journalist) will help keep me on the front lines for the ensuing years. The number of shares owned is so minuscule that I'm not likely to get rich off them. But hey, you never know. If a monetary windfall ever comes my way, maybe I can afford to increase the number of shares held or add to the list.

For the record... and again, to keep on the right side of journalistic ethics, I hold stock also in our own CompoundSemi Online Inc. (I should hope so, I co-founded it) and I will soon be the proud possessor of shares in OptoLum, which is a privately held startup that I've tracked carefully since its inception. OptoLum was co-founded by my good friend (and fellow Texan) Joel Dry and his partner Karen Baker. I've been very impressed by their performance thus far, and especially by Joel's extraordinary grasp of the SSL industry and its needs, and his willingness to share that knowledge and insight to help catapult the SSL industry into the international business spotlight.

As I near retirement, my personal investment strategy (as it relates to the compounds) is to ultimately profit from these long term investments in what I sincerely feel are key industry players. I hope to have the opportunity to also get in on some especially promising IPOs and dabble a bit, perhaps, in some of the more promising startups and spinouts. For me, investing represents a significant change in my life. It's something new to me and something I'm really enjoying. But hey, it's summer and a great time for change.