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Dale, it is time to call Goldman Sachs. It is evident to me that the parts of Inprise are worth more than the total. Therefore, I believe it is time to dismantle this company. First of all, the company has approximately $3/share in cash. They also possess about $1/share between the land, building, and equipment. This could be given as a special dividend to shareholders if they dismantled or sold off the company in pieces. They could also package the tools division (JBuilder, C++B, and Delphi) and get in the vicinity of between $3-$4 cash/share or $4-$6 stock/share. This is based on revenues of about $100 Million/year with a gross margin of 90% and SG&A expenses of $40-$50 Million. Cash upfront is obviously worth more than stock. Next they could package the middleware group (MIDAS, COBRA (Visigenics), Inprise Application Server, & Interbase.) The revenue for this group is hard to peg; however, this group has very good growth opportunities in the future. Given the right marketing and development muscle, we could probable fetch the same or more than the tools group. Put this all together and we have between $10-$12/share cash. I do not believe Dale's team could approach that valuation for a minimum of three years, if ever. This would benefit shareholders, employees and the new owners. Employees would benefit due to a stable job with a stable company. New owners would benefit due to the fire sale prices. The only group that would suffer some negative aspects would be top management since new owners would not want them for any period of time. Although, they have all those options and restricted shares they could sale. Potential new owners would include but not be limited to CA, Oracle, IBM, Sun, Symantec, Merant, & Microsoft. So Dale, please make the call on my dime. It is time. |
