In response to your question....
Z, what is your "honest" opinion of TSIG.com?
"Honest" opinion as of July 29, 2000
They are trying to put together a
business with acquired pieces to solve the problem
of not spending all of a company's revenues
to acquire one time customers.
To date everything has been consistent w. that model.
However, not everything has gone according to
or as optimistically as planned. Plus prior
to last year's re-orginazation, too many
directions were being pursued too quickly by
a management "teiam" rather than a team, with each
"i" wanting to go in his own direction.
Thus the plan has taken longer to generate
returns than desired, while evolving and adapting
in some ways share holders and the company could
NOT have anticipated even 6 months ago due to this
shifting "new" economy. (Consistent comment I've
read from all VC's is to have a flexible b-plan
with e-companies).
The charity model agreements were more dependent
upon distributorships and were NOT self fulfilling as
desired, since the "volunteer" work force needed
human support. Prior management, Newton specifically,
was also an impediment to the distributor plan &
Hwang didn't want to be in the card business at all.
Thus finances were wasted on Silicon valley divisions
et cetera, while anticipated revenues from Signature
didn't come through. Signature got bought out, cut back,
and "that's business". Any small company
dependent upon one or two large contracts for
business development revenues may have been equally
adversely impacted.
Thus the bottomline, source of financing
needed from some less than savory characters
(which many people w. money can be, since greed
becomes its own reward).
Moreover, not enough money to pursue a distributorship
program, which IMO is/was essential for a program
like LifeTime Learning, especially since schools have
so many fund raising options.
Now regarding corporate agreements, these aren't
as contingent upon distributors, but distributors
can creat these type of deals on a local scale.
Though the big name co-branded cards are also
highly dependent upon the bureaucracies and agendas
of these big companies populated with people
who have to contributed their 2 cents to justify their
jobs. THus an announced deal may take time to first
"test" and then implement. No large company is
going to jump into a large agreement without first
putting their toe in the water (or, at least, until
someone else puts their toe in the water).
Disney may be waiting to see how Coca Cola's deals
succeed (as an aside is Coke or Pepsi distributed
at Disney parks?), or Disney may just be moving
slowly as many big companies do.
Regardless as to what Disney does or doesn't do,
these corporate deals have also shifted and expanded
the original "charity model" since these corporate
deals also add very profittable data base mining
revenues. Disney and Coca Cola are obviously more
interested in getting marketing info about their
targeted customers, than these companies are interested
in getting "re-load" sales. These companies also
want to reiterate their logo identities through
"pocket bill boards" or cards.
Anyway, also obviously these deals all take time.
As a gauge of "execution" thus we'll have the following
events or "plot twists" to follow in the next several
months to ascertain whether the "plot" develops or
digresses not necessarily in this order.
1). Completion of pending acquistion of GeneralSearch
2). Development of GeneralSearch site
3). Release of IB bank name for first draw
down of financing for acquisition of GeneralSearch
4). Pending acquisition of Affinity completed
5). Another 8-K for Affinity acquisition.
6). Kick-Off of Coca Cola "Refresh the Rivalry"
and "Rivalry Sweep Stake" campaigns including card
distributions and web site launches
7). Pending acquisition of Reliant completed
8). Another 8-K for Reliant
9). Pending acquisition of American Teleswitch completed
10). New members from acquired companies being included
as members of the board for combined companies.
This list of "plot" events doesn't include
any "new" or further elaboration upon already
officially or unofficially announced deals.
Thus there is plenty to pay attention too
other than the daily ritual on "the Zoo"
Events take days, weeks, months, and years to transpire,
so expectations should be put into their proper
time frames. Any "unofficial" confirmation should
be put in its proper context, and discounted accordingly IMO.
If by the end of the third quarter, the end
of September, many of the above events don't transpire,
then I'll be concerned. May warrant me making
a re-assessment of my investment position.
Till there is real news though, we'll just
have the soap opera to watch, and especially the one
with which we're both the most familiar:
"As TIGI Message Boards Make the Stomach Turn"
Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
z |
