MGCN update:
MGCN may release its big news (that is, its initial list of signed up ISP's, vendors, and superagents) any time, but is now only saying it 'should' do so 'by the end of September.'
MGCN is in negotiations with Mindspring, MSPG. Landing that ISP would of course be a home run for Megachain. Sources in the company would neither confirm nor deny that the delay in releasing the 'big' news is related to these negotiations, but it is certainly true that the initial news report will have a far larger impact if it includes Mindspring.
The temptation for MegaChain is to hold off releasing the big news, because the longer they wait, the more firms they'll have signed up, and hence the bigger the splash the news will make. The constraint is that the news release is the kick off for the marketing campaign, and that campaign has to start withing a few weeks at the latest, because a big part of the initial marketing strategy to venders is exploiting the demand for ads arising from the Christmas holidays.
Note that Megachain is running a business. The timing (and content) of this press release is being determined entirely on the basis of maximizing its impact on the upcoming marketing campaign. Megachain is not primarily concerned about irritating its stockholders in the short run. The goal is to maximize the success of the business, and if the business is sound, then the stock price will take care of itself.
MGCN's main activity now is signing up ISP's, who will in term send the megachain pitch to all of their subscribers, inviting them to become agents and/or to respond to freebies given out by advertisers through MGCN.
Signing up with Megachain does not cost ISP's money. In fact, it provides a risk free source of income for them, because in their role as superagents they get a cut of the advertising revenues that are generated by the program.
The goal is to have at least one million subscribers receive the initial sales pitch. The subscriber base of large and small ISP's that have already signed up is more than a half million.
Other news:
As I reported here on Sept. 7, and the company announced on Sept. 9, MegaChain is now fully reporting financially.
MegaChain is in negotiations with an English company that wants to, in essence, buy the European franchise of Megachain. Essentially, this company would pay MegaChain for the rights to sign up European ISP's and vendors. European ISP's have a greater incentive than North American ones to sign onto programs like MegaChain, because they derive much less income from subscriber fees (in fact, some Euro ISP's are free, they don't charge anything to subscribers. This is possible for them because they get kickbacks from the phone companies, who charge customers for line time). As a result, Euro ISP's need other sources of revenue, and as a result are more willing than US ISP's to send promotional material to their subscribers. The MegaChain program provides an additional source of income to these ISP's
The deal with Sympatico is done. Sympatico is a canadian ISP with over 300,000 subscribers, see sympatico.ca They have also signed, or are in the process of closing, deals with a bunch of smaller ISP's.
Even without any marketing yet, Megachain already has over 1000 agents signed up.
I have uncovered less information about vendors. One vendor that is signed up sells discount golf equipment. A vendor that is likely to sign (and may have already signed up) is Southwest Airlines (LUV).
disclosers:
I am not an insider of MegaChain. I've uncovered this information by a combination of detective work and phone calls to the company, primarily Bruce Harvey (megachain's IR spokesman) and Tom Lavin (the president, who with persistence can be reached from time to time).
An example of detective work: Bruce revealed that Mega had signed up a large canadian ISP, and proved some generic info about the firm. A little bit of research then reveals that the only company that meets the description is Sympatico.
For more info about megachain, see
Message 11065612
Message 11043185
Message 10246459
signed,
Blue Voodoo
PS Do you own DD. |
