Ron,
Just one more little niggle.... I shall use the current Lernout&Hauspie fiasco as a case study to make my point, if you don't mind.
A Failure to Translate a Promise
William Drozdiak Washington Post Service
Monday, December 18, 2000
Europe's Culture of Subsidies Dims a Bright High-Tech Star
YPRES, Belgium Only eight months ago, the Belgian speech-technology firm Lernout Hauspie Speech Products was considered one of the brightest stars in Europe's high tech galaxy. With a market capitalization close to $10 billion, L&H appeared to refute the conventional wisdom that Europe was doomed to lag behind the United States in cutting-edge markets of the information revolution.
By early this month, those dreams had evaporated. A Belgian judge denied Lernout Hauspie's request for bankruptcy protection, declaring that the company, which has nearly $500 million in debts, had not offered an accurate financial picture of its plight and that its restructuring plan was "totally unsatisfactory." L&H has vowed to appeal.
The company's stock, listed on the Nasdaq, had fallen more than 90 percent, to $3.50 a share, before trading was first suspended on U.S. and European markets in early November. It was delisted Wednesday at 58 cents a share.
Its once-revered founders have resigned in disgrace, leaving about 14,000 investors - many of them farmers and shopkeepers in this quaint Flemish town - distraught over their almost-worthless shares.
While many high-tech companies have suffered in the recent meltdown on global stock markets, L&H's spectacular fall offers special insights into the reasons Europe, despite its wealth, high education levels and world-class leadership in such fields as wireless telecommunications, is still struggling to build a viable entrepreneurial society that can cope with the competitive demands of the global economy.
"This case is a tragic blow not just for Belgium but for all of Europe," said Philippe De Buck, executive director of the Belgian industrial federation. "It shows how badly we need much greater transparency and a sense of corporate governance. For too long, banks and businesses did not feel they should be held accountable to shareholders. That has to change."
[snip]
iht.com
Now tell me, Ron, why those 14,000 suckers who've been duped in the LHSP scam are the only stakeholders entitled to file a lawsuit against the management of LHSP? I mean, as you put it, Capitalism is all about money AND workers, isn't it?.... Now, besides the thousands of small shareholders who poured all their savings into that high-tech white elephant, there're likely thousands of young graduates who've hopefully applied for a job to Lernout&Hauspie --and they've been TURNED AWAY because they allegedly didn't match the company's HIGH standards/requirements!!!
But tell me Ron, what were LHSP's topnotch criteria supposed to be since the whole business was a HOAX, anyway? The latest news about that phoney voice-recognition thimblerig is that the managers doctored their sales figures by a fraudulent 3$ BILLION! Their only "achievement" so far is that their voice-recognition software was embedded in Tawain-made dolls.... The doll stops crying if the kid says "daddy" or "mommy". Anyway, thousands of young engineers, software geeks, language specialists, marketing graduates, etc. were shamelessly tossed aside like a bunch of Floridian ballots! Because they were black or North African or Walloon or.... you name it.... Thousands of honest job seekers were told, "you don't fit" --by a company whose main business was all about SWINDLING as much money as possible out of Belgium's taxpayers and US investors!!
So, if anything, those unfortunate job seekers should also pool their grievances and file a DISCRIMINATION lawsuit against the LHSP crooks, don't you think? Why should LHSP shareholders be the only legitimate victims in this case? After all, they could as well have invested their money into, say, Coca-Cola stock....
Gus. |
