Ok, I'll take the bait.
Yes, my perspective is different. I have said that I consider myself an owner of THQ. That does not mean that I need or want to attend production meetings and make day-to-day decisions. That's why I vote for the directors (and thus management) that I do. I prefer to be a passive owner. It just is my opinion that my THQ profits are my portion of the business profits - not theoretical stock market gains or losses on a daily, weekly, or even annual basis.
Now, of course, as a passive owner, you must believe in those you place in charge. I would never invest in a company whose CEO I felt was looking out for himself above the shareholders. There are obviously cases where CEO's do just that with jets, cars, excessive pay, perks, etc. If you feel that is what BF is doing, I heavily recommend you sell. In fact, I fear the opposite - I fear that BF may be yielding to pressure to support a stock price with press releases, analyst meetings, shareholder soothing, etc. rather than focusing on real business problems.
Of course, those who do have the power to oust BF or have other avenues of influence, get more access to him. They may be able to hear about problems or better results a while before I do being a smaller and less influential shareholder.
Does it matter? Not from my prospective. If BF turns out to have been a terrible long term CEO and was lucky to get this far, and subsequently we have several down years of profitibility or losses, then I made a bad choice investing in this company (yes, that is my bad choice, not the shorts or market makers or any other scapegoat that people want to blame). The fact that some traders or analysts get to trade out or in before I do is a minor issue.
But if, in fact, THQ still makes $2.00 a share this year combined with continued positive outlook, then who cares about the stock price.
The only thing I do worry about is how THQ feels they can make the large amounts of money in the 4th quarter, when they apparently can't in the 1st and 2nd quarters despite having large re-orders of TS2, WM2K, as well as the release of such a major title like Smackdown. It relates to my one big worry that THQ is becoming a bloated, high-cost company, similar to most of the other players in this industry due to their acquisitions in recent years.
That said, THQ has yet to explain their business plan for 2000, and I give them a lot more respect and trust than a bunch of reports about what was said at an analysts meeting.
If the business plan remains good, and THQ addresses business concerns and conditions, I will stay with the company. If THQ ducks the questions, or affirms that profits will be low in Q1 and Q2 despite expected strong sales due to high ongoing costs of business, I will re-evaluate my position.
Kory |
