I've given the matter of selling a lot of thought over the past two days. I've already determined to cancel my present order to sell at 10 1/2 tomorrow morning. I just don't think selling at this point would make much sense. With the exception of holding that $1 billion, Dr. Schmidt is making good decisions. In fact, it's textbook. Furthermore, I'm short on alternatives right now. A couple that I've looked at twice is IOM and CS. In contrast to the NOVL shareholder suit, the IOM one won't amount to much, if anything. If I buy IOM, it will be in the $8-8.5 range. I've followed the story there. As for Cabletron, I read an article entitled "Cabletron Disappoints Again," by Jim Surowiecki. It postponed an investment in CS.
With alternatives to the likely payoff in NOVL, maybe my decision to stick it out would be different. But without them, I figure why bail?
Where do I invest then?
Truthfully, I didn't expect Novell to jump so soon. Contrary to the comments made by others here, I believe we're dealing with a very focused company.
And one more thing, for everyone here- Don't expect Dr. Schmidt to buy shares on the public market. His employment agreement with Novell grants him very favorable terms upon which to acquire them. He has options and restricted stock that will vest over the next five years. If he hangs in there over the next five years and gets that stock price in the $20/share range, he'll be one rich and happy puppy. Disregarding options (2.75m of them so far), this guy owns 900,000 shares of restricted stock purchased at $.01 per share. He'd be a fool to buy shares on the open market in these early stages. |
