Questions I am putting together for Nicole Knowles @ Infospace and other thoughts.
BTW, thanks Mike for the support.
I left a message for Ms. Knowles on her voice mail. Message said if there are financial questions to leave your name and address and it will be mailed out to you, otherwise leave a message.
My take on that, and on problems related to reaching INSP by email, would be a risk management decision. In the face of existing lawsuits, perhapse it is best to not commit too much to writting and to have a unified approach to the dissimination of information.
As far as I know, the class action lawsuits have not had the hearing for certification. From a practical point of view, this stage of the lawsuits are before the true Discovery phase of litigation where information can be compelled through subpoena. Now, the parties that are attempting to sue INSP must reley on witness. I posted on another board that I felt INSP had a weakness in this area as I have read about several lawsuits of employees and former employees regarding compensation issues and employment issues.
What this means is investigators will have no problem locating these potential adverse witnesses. It makes the plaintiff job a bit easier.
I KNOW NOTHING OF THE MERITS OF THE CLASS ACTION CASE. I NO NOTHING ABOUT THE INSURANCE IN FORCE FOR INSP AS RELATED TO ANY LIABILITY THEY MAY INCUR.
Questions for INSP Investor Relations.
A. Knowles background and qualifications.
B. Financial numbers as related to cash on hand:
1) Knowles previously told me 446 million cash and investments. Of that 75 million was long term and the rest consisted of liquid cash and short term investments (that of 12 months or less). This equals about 371 in cash and short term investments, again, according to what I was just told by INSP.
2) Jain said in interview given 8/13/01 INSP had cash of 400 million.
3) From my understanding of the 10 K, Cash & cash equivalents is 268.2 million and long tern investments are 75.4 million and finally they report a payroll tax due them from the Federal Gvt. of 13.2 million. All this equals 356.8 million.
So 446 million minus 356.8 million is 89.2 million of money I cannot account for and need some help in understanding. Anyone???????
My second line of questioning is more important to me in that it will help for me to rest at night at present with my INSP investment.
Is INSP the platform providor for OMNISKY's OXYGEN platform?
I listend to the earnings conference call of Omnisky yesterday (8/14/01).
Nothing earth shaking, the financials are growing, they need additional financing of about 33 million to fund operations. But the BIG news is that OMNY will be ONE of the PREMIER service providors for VERIZON. This announcement was made 8/14/01. No details of the agreement were disclosed BUT here is how INSP may be in on the deal:
1) 6/30/00 Press release by INSP. OMNY gets cash infusion of 90 million. 60 million from News Corp, 15 millilon from PSI Net, and (I am assuming the rest of the 15 million from the three additional investors named, INFOSPACE, AT&T, and AKAMAI.
2) Three and a half months later 10/16/00 INSP press release. OMNISKY launches MyOmnisky on INSP platform.
3) 5/11/01 OMNY press release. Omnisky unveils Oxygen.
4) 8/14/01 Verizon taps Omnisky as one of premier....
What this implies to me is if INSP is exocuting on the stratagy to be the 'company behind the company' then they are getting in deeper with Verizon. OMNISKY has been around since 1999, they had some rounds of financing but Jain claims to duplicate what he can offer to carriers would cost 100 million. I can not see OMNY coming up with that kind of talent, cash, and work ethic to put it all together in that short a time frame. I do not know enough about OMNY, how many engineers do they have on staff?
One of the final things OMNY said in the conference call was that THEY HAD ALMOST NO COMPETITION. Sounded exactly like Jain to me. This would be a material breach of ethics if they stated that as INSP is a major direct competitor (if they are not the providor). And in today's legal climate, companies would not risk that kind of mistake (one would think.)
What I liked about this prospect was the fact OMNY would earn money for the running of the services (i. e. Quality control, customer service.....)
If it IS Infospace, then Jain has found a way to outsource the technology and stick to being the 'pic's and shovels' of the goldminers!
I'll report when INSP IR calls me back.
Meanwhile, anyone feel free to help out here. Us retail investors really get the shaft sometimes.
Geesh, I just want to know how much cash INSP has now that the stock price is at 1.54! That numer is important!
* sorry about the lousy typing but I don't have time to correct. |
