It will be interesting to see how TYC's lawyers and underwriters for the IPO of the fiber business react to this. If they deem it potentially material, and assuming that the red has already been distributed (certainly sounds like it), they have to decide whether to re-circulate, thereby delaying the offering.
JDN, in the scheme of things, you probably have little to worry about in the short or intermediate term as the market digests these allegations and moves on, with little or no lasting effect at this point. For GBLX holders (I am long, with no position in TYC), if the GBLX allegations have any merit, they are disturbing. On the face of it, the dates and relationship between the South America ring and subsequent announcement of TYC's own fiber venture do provoke one to wonder. If TYC did use confidential information improperly, it should be taken seriously by GBLX, as it would allow a supplier-become-competitor to erode GBLX's strategy to use its first mover strategy to greatest advantage.
The timing of this action is interesting in that another case of theft of corporate information just resurfaced in today's news--that of Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, whom GM alleged took file cabinets full of proprietary supplier pricing and parts information with him when he left GM to become second top guy in VW's operations. As I recall, after a police search of his apartment somewhere in Europe found confidential GM docs, a German court found his conduct culpable. Now, yesterday, a federal grand jury in Detroit has indicted him over the same chain of facts.
Bottom line, absent GBLX finding something akin to a smoking gun when the parties conduct discovery (and somehow I doubt TYC will turn over anything that gives GBLX the day), I think the confluence in timing alone will not be sufficient for GBLX to gain a decisive advantage to warrant risking the time and expense of a trial. Other evidentiary stuff has to surface.
My musings on an interesting sidelight that is otherwise of little moment for GBLX at this time in this lousy market for a stock behaving accordingly.
Steve |
