Hi David, it's been a long time. Yes, I too kept all my Erin shares. In fact recently I sold the other "dog" I was hanging on to and used the funds to buy several more thousand shares of EV at prices from $0.15-0.17.
As for your request for an explanation of the relationship between EV and Shadow Capital (now Soundcache.com Inc), well here goes, to the best of my knowledge ...
Shadow Capital is a separate company that was created as a subsidiary of EV. This subsidiary was then spun off as a separate and independent company by way of a dividend to then existing EV shareholders. EV shareholders received 1 share, 1 Series A warrant, and 1 Series B warrant for each 5 EV shares held. The series A warrants have since expired, while the series B warrants have recently been extended to expire April 30th 2000.
Subsequently Shadow shares were consolidated on a 3.5 old for 1 new basis. After the consolidation a sort of reverse takeover was done whereby Shadow Capital acquired another private company (essentially what is now known as Soundcache.com Inc). The acquisition was paid for by issuing new post-consolidation shares of Shadow and issuing them to the principals of the private company.
As for your statement that Erin owns 40% of Shadow/Soundcache, well I don't know the exact numbers, but I think you are close. After the original dividend issue, EV owned about 66% of Shadow, with EV shareholders owning the balance. But with the consolidation of shares, and the issue of new shares to the owners of the acquired company, I believe that EV ownership fell to about 30-33%. If EV exercised or does exercise the warrants for additional shares in Soundcache, then that 33% could probably grow to about 40%.
Soundcache.com is in the process of trying to obtain a public listing using the name Dittybase.com (supposedly the listing should be obtained soon). Depending on the success of the proposed public listing, that 30-40% ownership by EV could in fact become quite valuable.
As far as chucking the mineral properties and going strictly technology ... I believe that EV has taken the proper approach. EV management has told me in the past that should another significant technology opportunity present itself, there is nothing stopping them from doing what they did with Shadow Capital all over again. Should that actually occur, EV could conceivably end up with a 30-40% stake in several good technology companies.
In the meantime, I believe that EV does not wish to entirely abandon their mineral/mining roots. The reason for this is simple and obvious -- in fact it is the only reason why I have kept all my EV shares all these years (Aug 96 for me). EV has what will some day amount to a world class (one of the top 3 if not the absolute best) boron mining property. It cost them very little (relatively speaking) to obtain their 50% rights to this property. And to the best of my knowledge it is costing them very little (if anything at all) to maintain these property rights while they await the chance to develop the property. Yes, I know, based on the current situation it may be anywhere from 1 year to "until hell freezes over" before the property is actually developed, but the potential is just way too large to give up. So, in my opinion, it makes sense that they wish to remain a mining company -- as I said above, there is nothing precluding them from participating in technology ventures as well by repeating the Shadow Capital experience.
Furthermore, while I am a very strong believer that the "internet", and more generally speaking, all technology stocks are NOT just a passing craze, at the same time I strongly believe that mineral company stocks will undergo a revival in the coming years. I suspect we will begin to see the very beginning of this trend late this year and continue strongly into 2001. If the rumors I hear about EV's acquisition of a North American mineral property are true, it may just end up a case of EV being in the right place at the right time. |
