When is the resignation of a Chairman and a director a good thing?
Columbia Capital Announces Resignations of Chairman and Director
ABILENE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 1998--Columbia Capital Corp. (OTC-BB: CLCK - news) announced today that Glenn Gallant, the company's Chairman of the Board and Secretary, and Douglas Baetz, a Director, resigned from the company, effective November 3, 1998. Messrs. Gallant and Baetz, who own approximately 80 percent of Columbia's outstanding stock, have agreed not to have any involvement with the company because of the pending litigation involving certain
companies they control.
Kenneth Klotz, 53, President and a Director of Columbia, was named to the additional post of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Charles LaMontagne, 45, the company's chief financial officer, was also named Secretary of the company.
Messrs. Gallant and Baetz are defendants in a civil complaint filed October 29 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in its capacity as receiver of BestBank, a Colorado bank that was seized by state regulators in July. Neither Columbia nor its operating subsidiary, First Independent Computers, Inc., has been named in the litigation.
First Independent processes transactions and handles related back-office operations for credit cards issued by BestBank under a program administered by Florida-based Century Financial Group, which is controlled by Messrs. Gallant and Baetz.
''Columbia and First Independent have performed, and continue to perform, all of their obligations under the servicing agreement with BestBank as administered by the FDIC,'' Mr. Klotz said.
First Independent was acquired by Messrs. Gallant and Baetz in April 1997 from Security Shares, Inc., a bank holding company based in Abilene, Texas. In September 1997 Columbia Capital, which was controlled by Messrs. Gallant and Baetz, acquired all of First Independent's common stock in exchange for Columbia common stock.
Messrs. Klotz and LaMontagne, along with Olan Beard, Executive Vice President of Credit Card Services, have been senior executives of First Independent since 1994. Mr. Klotz has more than 30 years experience in data processing and information systems, including senior managerial and executive positions at Republic National Bank and Pride Refining Inc.
Columbia Capital Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary First Independent Computers, Inc., provides information and transaction processing to small and medium sized financial institutions, retailers and health care providers. The company specializes in credit and debit card processing and servicing, transaction processing and document management and distribution services.
Forward-looking statements in this document are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties which may affect the accuracy of such statements. Such risks may include any delays or the loss of existing customers. For a full discussion of such risks, please refer to the company's Annual Report on Form 10-KSB/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1997 and subsequent filings. The company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to the forward looking statements contained herein.
Contact:
The MWW Group
Public Relations - Tel. (201) 964-2407
Ron Stack (rstack@mww.com)
biz.yahoo.com
Now some people might wonder yeah but what about their voting interest? Oh sure that would still exist but they will have no say in the day to day operations and CLCK has essentially distanced themselves from the problems of Baetz and Gallant as well as they can. The ex-BestBank credit card portfolio is completely legitimate. The credit cards from the travel club had very little credit associated with them. Those cards mean nothing to CLCK in terms of the overall portfolio. Please remember that the FDIC has already been working with Columbia Capital and FICI since then end of July. We have already had outstanding earnings announced. Those earnings came largely from that credit card portfolio. If anything more than an extremely small percentage came from the travel club I would be absolutely astounded:
biz.yahoo.com
At $2 a share for a company with real and rapidly growing earnings
Now could easily be the best time ever to buy CLCK stock because it should all be uphill from here.
Regards, Jeff |
