And now it's down even further from where it was yesterday, at 68 cents, needing a 47% pop to halt the delisting countdown.
One would hope Aunt Jain is sharp enough about the market to know that simply announcing a buyback or announcing an intention to personally buy some stock isn't enough. Most people dismiss announced buyback intentions because they're so rarely followed through. And he definitely lacks the credibility anymore to convince people that something he says is true when they're in the habit of dismissing the same statement from CEOs who haven't sabotaged their own credibility so thoroughly. Of course, AJ's not exactly the sharpest spoon in the knife drawer, so no telling...
I can't remember if INSP's stated remaining Cash position included anything of dubious FMV, but according to Yahoo, they're currently trading right at the value of their cash. Not good if they demonstrate an ability to trade below that. And also likely not good that another set of financials aren't too far off and the increasing focus on the accuracy of their numbers should make the figures more "brutally" honest.
But that's not why I came over here to right a message. I came over because of this:
I'm sure we all know that SI is kind of a stupid step-child in the INSP home (though likely the family member with the best-paying job) as it's in an area the company doesn't purport to be in. It's so insignificant that it's treated as nothing more than something that's lumped into the general corporate overhead accounts, likely reducing the costs to a less astronomical figure than they would be otherwise. It's camel drool, okay?
Isn't it ironic, though, that this camel drool of an insignicant speck in the vast INSP empire is exactly the same property that industry pundits once said would have an IPO value of about $200M. Or about what all of INSP is worth right now.
I don't remember when the $200M comment was made, but think it was before the 'net bubble even had very much air in it. I think it was when GNET was trading at about $5 and the comment was made to illustrate how good Russ was at finding really good deals.
In any event, I'm sure it wouldn't be valued at $200M today. But it's worth some rather significant amount if a buyer can be found who isn't bothered by things such as bloated, unmaintainable code and stupid database structures, or at least wouldn't recognize such things even if they caused his own programmers to laugh hysterically.
So, though INSP (if my assumptions of SI's profitability are correct) is likely very glad to own SI, it's apparent they don't want anyone knowing they own it so arguably it's something they'd want to get rid of. Not shut down. Sell to someone who wants it.
My suggestion is that they put SI up for sale. Immediately. Before prospective buyers get too much of a feeling the company's desperate. And not one of those Lazy Susan arrangements where they give someone the money to buy it. We'd notice that with the next quarterly.
Although the down side of that, if Aunt Jain cares, is that with the quarterly immediately following that sale, we'd have a pretty good idea just what impact SI was having on the bottom line.
Anyway, that's what I think. SI should be sold and the proceeds (plus some of that pilla... I mean merger stockpile of cash) should be used to immediately buy back a bunch of the too-huge float. Not announce it. Do it. Immediately get in the market and start competing with everyone else to buy back as much stock as it takes to get the price back above $1. Buy it and retire it.
It's a waste of breath, but I felt it needed said.
Edit 1: Now it's going to take a 52% increase from the current price of 66 cents. Get down to 50 cents and it might just be worth a small gamble that Jain will somehow be able to perform a miracle because surely he knows that it's game over if this thing gets delisted, although maybe 90 days is an infinity to him. This company doesn't have a prayer on OTCBB.
Edit 2: Man, this site's slow! I bet Brad would cringe if he tried to write a post or edit it. I know I do. |
