More on MSFT support of WAVO
This might explain why Vulcan is often mistaken for MicroSoft:
""Paul G. Allen, multi-billionaire, co-founder of MicroSoft, 44, has been a director of the Vulcan Group Company since 1990, and also served on the Board from 1981 to 1984. Mr. Allen was a founder of the Company and worked at Microsoft from 1975 to 1984. Mr. Allen owns and invests in a suite of companies exploring the potential of multimedia digital communications. His wholly-owned companies include Asymetrix Corporation, Interval Research Corp., and Vulcan Ventures Inc. He is also the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and the Seattle Seahawks football team, a partner in the entertainment studio DreamWorks SKG, and holds investments in more than 35 technology companies. Mr. Allen is also a director of both HSN, Inc. and Ticketmaster Corp.""
Anyone who's followed me here from the CNWK or CMGI thread might remember how much Vulcan group and later Intels support helped that stock. If is common practice for an allied company to "support" a friends stock price. It only get's problematic legally when the percentage of stock exceeds 5%. With Windows'98 and WaveTop delayed, and the market going into the crapper during the SEA market drop, WAVO was very vulnerable to a loss of investor confidence. MicroSoft bottom fishing in the $8 range probably helped keep many contributors on this thread from walking away from this stock months ago. I myself was a buck away from a margin call and would have never looked back. I don't know how this helps their cash flow as it's been suggested in this thread that at a burn rate of $5mil per month, WavePhore should run out of cash by late spring. Keeping the stock price relatively stable is the best way to assure underwriters of a possible secondary offering or other lending institutions of a good risk. Just think of it this way, if you were going to take out a big mortgage, and MicroSoft was your co-signor, do you think anyone would have a problem lending YOU money? |
