Hcirteg and all, I found it extremely worthwhile to go to the show. I spent about 1/2 hour with Laura Crowley in the morning, and about another 3/4 of an hour after lunch. I found her to be most impressive.
I will post some details now, however I encourage you to ask me questions because I am sure I will not hit everything that we discussed.
First I must say that I am feeling very good about the future. I have no fear of the company going bust. They signed up 30,000 new subscribers to MyTalk last week (Not a misprint) and are over 125,000 as of the show. The ads and student reps are going full swing at this point on 45 major college campuses (averaging 30,000 student per). That's over 1,300,000 students to tap into just in that campaign.
The booth was well staffed, well attended, and everyone seemed enthusiastic about the company. The layoffs were mostly, but not fully, Portico customer service people and duplicate administrative people due to the division of the company.The booth focused entirely on MyTalk. The ads are rolling out more and more now that the 100,000 plateau has been reached.
The Portico model is being left for the Carriers when that occurs. Bell South is very close to moving forward in Atlanta. They have upped the initial rollout to 400 users from 100. This phase is using a cost split with GMGC and GMGC's NOC. However any expansion will use Bell South's. Things had been moving along great will Qwest until the takeovers started and then Qwest's team got pulled to deal with issues involving integration regarding the takeovers. The word is that things will start moving forward again after the other items on Qwest's plate are completed. Not before year-end.
Unofficially, there is acknowledgemet of the incentive by the Preferreds to push the price down. They are very anxious to get out from under that cloud. The ELOC was done only because of the NASDAQ issue. They seemed solid in their desire to avoid any future convertible deals. The current 10 day reset period is key in that it allows the Preferreds to reset all remaining shares at this time. Even though more reset periods exist, unless they can push the price down even further than this level, no incentive will exist,imho, to screw will the stock. At $1, the Preferred lose because GMGC gets to pay them back a liquidation price plus a kicker instead of them getting shares to flip at a profit. While GMGC does not have any concrete evidence of this action, I got the distinct feeling that they feel the same as we do about its existance.
They do not feel they are in danger of getting delisted at this point. The ELOC is still part of their assets on their balance sheet. They drew the first $2,500,000 last month even though they did not need that cash right then because the stock price allowed them to. Again, evidence in my mind that they unofficially understand the actions of the Preferreds. Let me also say that non-verbal communication is sometimes even more important than verbal communication, and I have faith in my ability to read into both.
They acknowledged that the advertising was lacking last year. Changes are being made, if not already complete, to contract with ad and PR agencies to whom GMGC will be a more important client. Laura is very smart, savvy, and driven. So are some of the others who have come on board this year. I feel like they are righting the ship, reacting properly to the disappointment of the delays in certain contracts and trials, and focusing the company on where they can get the most bang for its (our) buck.
Kenya is described as the silver bullet. They will no longer be announcing deals as they enter into the early development stages. Expect deals to be announced like Excite was as opposed to like Intuit was.
I can't tell you enough how much confidence I felt coming across during my conversations. A friend of mine, who also owns shares, was with me. I had to temper his enthusiasm, and those of you who know of my posts also know how enthusiastic he must have been for me to have to temper him!
It was a tiring, but invigorating day. Obviously, they would not comment on certain deals that we all want to know about. Intuit is not dead, according to GMGC. They consider the time up to the November 10 conference call "early Q4". Without putting anyone in an awkward position of having to confirm or deny what I felt was implied, I must say that I walked away feeling like it would be extremely foolish to sell right now. I believe as strongly in the future for GMGC as I have ever believed. They stuck to their significant revenue position in response to a direct question. When pressed, I got the non-answer that I expected both in regards to the revenue and the ability to get the Preferreds beyond the point of wanting the stock to fall and begin to get with the program. I liked the non-verbal responses I felt though.
They know the bulge of supply that will be created on any good news when the Preferreds sell off some of their new shares. I think they are no longer sticking their heads in the sand about it and understand the psychological harm that is caused to the average investor when they see price advances unable to be maintained. It will be interesting to see how news develops in response to that, but they did acknowledge that it will be something that will ultimately have to be gone through to get out the other side.
Seconds Out. |
