Geoff Tirman, of Talisman Capital, in this week's Barron's:
"And he has good things to say about a little telecom disaster called GRIC Communications. The stock is down from above 70 to under 2. He was in very early and has been a patient--perhaps stubborn is more apt--holder.
"Those good things boil down to this: The company has the largest global remote access/mobile office network in the world, with customers in more than 150 countries. He reckons it will do roughly $45 million in sales this year and grow perhaps 30% a year over the next several years anyway.
"What killed the stock was its identification with the Internet as well as telecom and, not coincidentally, that one of its operations was badly hemorrhaging money. But, Geoff reports with evident joy, that losing unit has been dumped and the drain stanched.
"The company has 19 million shares outstanding, $40 million in cash and, here's the neat part of the balance sheet, no debt. He figures it'll burn maybe $10-$15 million this year, so by year's end GRIC will still have some $25 million in the till. And at that point, he expect operations will reach the promised land--more commonly known as breakeven.
"His having held the stock through thick and thin, we wondered aloud what he expects from it. His answer: It'll be bought, or people--meaning investors--will wake up to its potential. In either case, he's firmly convinced, if a mite chastened by the shares' stunning rise and sickening fall, the stock will prove a big winner." |
