CONVERSATION WITH JOHN FOLGER: With this stock 85% off it highs, is it a good buying opportunity?
Just spoke to Mr. Folger. Confirmed that there is no material reason that the stock, which was at a high of $1.25 earlier this year, is now 15 cents.
I wanted to get an update directly. So, I called.
THE GIST OF IT ALL:
Delays have occurred in the financial areas, yes, but in many areas of internal product development they are doing real well. There is a lot of impressive development behind their website, which went "live" a few weeks ago. Lots of important progress and they are excited.
The bugaboo has been getting investors to wait for the auditing and funding of most or all of the potential acquisitions to be finalized. The initial acquisitions were announced many months ago, so what has happened?
Well these companies financials needed to be audited to ascertain their value. Much of the reason for the delay in the audits of these companies was that these companies books were not as complete as had been anticipated. Remember all of the potential acquisition candidates are privately held and not held up to the same scrutiny that the SEC requires. But now things are close and they expect to acquire either all or all but one of the companies.
Before you criticize BYIT management too harshly for the delays, try to picture the scope of what they were taking on. Think how long it takes the average BB company to get their own audits done, and you can imagine how long it takes to do several companies, especially large companies who have complicated product lines, inventory, and countless transactions.
BUT WORTH WAITING FOR:
Remember, these companies give them:
Instant Credibility and Buying Power,
Physical Locations that are profitable, and
Memberships Lists (which are "gold")
...and this means not 1, but 2 revenue sources!
They are acquiring a core of companies that will result in significant sales and profits from their existing stores ("brick and mortar") immediately. The membership lists will then be used for creating much more revenue, hopefully, through their upcoming revolutionary Internet shopping experience.
DILUTION TO BE MINIMIZED
The good news is that dilution will be minimized by two factors. They are planning to spread the numbers of shares needed to acquire these companies over several years. This should obviously have the effect of creating loyal shareholders out of them.
Also, they can use, as announced in the recent PR, debt financing such as the Accounts Receivables, to minimize dilution. Both of these factors are good news.
OTHER PERTINENT INFO:
Audits on BYIT itself are scheduled to get underway soon and should not be very complex. Recall they have until March 1, 2000 to meet the SEC's deadline since they were known as RDI Marketing on Jan 1., 1999 when the alphabetical deadline took effect. By starting the process in the next couple weeks that certainly should not pose a problem, according to Mr. Folger.
Lastly, some interesting PR's should continue to come out that hopefully will give shareholders reason to "buy and hold"
CONCLUSION
All told, these seem to be dedicated, hard working individuals that have done a great job, imo, of putting together a potentially outstanding business plan and infrastructure. Execution has been slower than hoped in some areas and faster in others. Shopping, the Internet, and a revolutionary way to shop for the best prices seems like a powerful combination to me. Although any BB stock is never a guaranteed winner, this sure sounds like an exciting combination that could prove very lucrative down the road for all shareholders.
It's amazing to me that others can't see that or won't wait for things to come to fruition. I wish there was more patience out there in BB-Land. I think we all be better off no matter what stocks we owned.
Remember: do you own DD and use my comments only as a guide. The information is believed to be accurate, but never guaranteed. |
