Paul, I know for a fact you are a very successful businessman and have become very comfortable financially, based on your own initiative and intelligence and wise business decisions. It is because of the above, I was astounded with your first response in your post to me.
Understanding you and I certainly have a different opinion on the stocks future direction, I cannot comprehend your in any way condoning the individuals actions of what appears to be charges of alleged blatant lies that have been told regarding the Presstek company.
My questions to you and others that trade Presstek stock......
If you ran a "public company" and found false, derogatory information was placed in public forums, newspapers and media by individuals that had, in all assumed accounts, launched a crusade to lie, deceive and fraud for their own profit and at your expense, would you turn the other cheek, ignore it, and pretend it never happened..... or would you defend your asset and that of your shareholders..... and in turn send a message to others that may also feel compelled to use intentional deception to profit directly at the expense of owners of your stock?
I am most interested in your response as I believe your comment.... It wouldn't surprise me to see it blow up in their face -- it should." would never have been made if you were long rather than short the stock or if this was your company that was affected.
I would like you to assume for a moment that you know Presstek has technology that is definitely "state of the art". Assume you believe this technology would soon be used by a majority of printers and press manufacturers around the world, with the vast potential for unlimited future revenue to the company.
You own shares of this company and after purchase, later learn there is a contingent of investors that care not about the companies product or service, but only see what appears an opportunity to make huge profit by shorting the stock. This type of play is legal and if the short guess is right, the contingent group benefits and the profit they have earned is quite legal.
However, lets assume that in this case, this group observes that the companies stock is not decreasing in share price, but instead, it begins to steadily increase in value, meaning the group "guessed wrong" or "guessed prematurely" on their original short decision. More shares are shorted and still the stock continues it's climb, due to the investors that believe the story, continuing to accumulate more shares. This further erodes the shorts investment and panic (desperation?) sets in.
A decision is made to circumvent any normal and orderly market patterns and instead, use any and all illegal attempts to personally influence the stock price downward.
Certain people with "special friends" then create lies, rumors and make up false information about the company, it's products, officers and personnel. They manage to get this erroneous information placed into the media and on the internet, in the hopes of influancing others to also short the stock, with the sole purpose of inducing panic selling. The stock price falls on this false and malicious "news" and many legitimate shareholders suffer losses.
As a shareholder, would you be inclined or "forced" to sell your shares at a loss, having believed many of these completely false statements? (Many did) If you later learned they were lies, would you not be offended? Would you expect the company to act and respond to these acts of "investment sabotage" or "industrial terrorism"? Would you not then commend the action of the company that decides to defend itself?
As a shareholder, would you also not think of initiating your own suit to recover your own personal losses from those responsible for contributing to it?
Paul, we are not just talking about a difference of opinion between those short and long Presstek stock. This filing seems to be much more serious than that. What would the legal implications be in regards to shareholders, if the three individuals Presstek charged, are found guilty of stock munipulation?
Neil |
