Bernie,
To err on the side of caution, I should clarify something. I have no personal knowledge of what Westell's actual contract situation is. I did not suggest and certainly did not mean to suggest to you or to anyone else that Westell's contracts have not been finalized. I certainly would not be trading this stock or posting any information on this string if I was privy to any material, nonpublic information about this company.
All I meant to say yesterday is that it is not at all unusual for press releases to be delayed for a long time even though contracts in question have long since been executed. As I stated yesterday, my personal experience has been that the time it takes to get press releases or anything else done is directly proportional to the size of the company you have to deal with. In the meantime, of course, nondisclosure provisions and political considerations may preclude the other party from disclosing anything publicly.
Lastly, I should note that it would be extremely unusual for officers of publicly-traded companies to mention or allude to contracts that have not been actually entered into particularly when such contracts or information about such contracts are "material." Under the securities laws, "material" information is information that is likely to affect average investors' decision to buy or sell the stock of the company in question.
If misleading or inaccurate material information has been inadvertently disseminated by a company's officers, it is very likely that the company's legal officers would immediately issue a corrective statement to rectify the situation. If no such statement has been made, well you need to draw your conclusions as to whether the information disclosed really needed correction or the people running the company or SEC are both asleep at the wheel. Again, to be entirely fair to Westell you need to carefully consider what has actually been said by Westell's officers about any pending contracts to see if anything materially misleading or inaccurate has been said.
I should note that there is a basic tension between the obligation imposed on public companies by the securities laws to disclose material information and the confidentiality obligations that are often imposed by nondisclosure agreements. I believe the things to watch for at this point are (1) what future SEC filings by WSTL, AMTX, GTE and others say about any major ADSL contracts, and (2) whether any WSTL or AMTX insiders are selling their shares. If WSTL and AMTX insiders can only sell their shares during windows when all material information about the company is already out in the market, you are likely to see little buying or selling if material announcements are, in fact, looming. The exception, of course, are regularly scheduled sales by large shareholders.
Hope this helps.
Andy |
