No, I believe the emphasis on the 4/30 date comes from several areas:
1) The ESVS SEC filing (with 4/30 calculated for this thread by Aleta, with confirmations from thread participants);
2) A deluge of naysayers saying the audit will not come out at all, never mind 4/30;
3) A sprinkling of fencesitters noting that they'll be back when the financials come out, this with the 4/30 date in mind.
4) Indications from private conversations noting the audit will be completed on time.
Hence all the attention on this date. Were I the company, however, I'd at least want the following in place before releasing the report:
1) I'd want to know full well what my company is, who is in it and what it intends to accomplish and how to do it--corporate structure intact and ready for public announcement, perhaps coupled with release of the audit.
2) I'd want to be able to defend and explain or acknowledge areas of criticism that could result on the downside from material within the audit, and time to brief the management of the company accordingly;
3) I'd want to be able to respond publicly to anything likely to occur as a result of the release of the report. This could be either positive (i.e., greater revenues than Doubleclick, et. al.) or negative (1997 was a wash, we're broke, etc.).
4) I'd want to confirm that the merger intentions are on track and that the audit will enable all to move along as planned.
5) I'd want a thorough review of the findings to ascertain that there are no errors within the content of the audit.
6) I'd want to make sure there were no typoEs!
I'm sure there's more to consider. But on the other hand, I'm not an executive of a company or an auditor. Oh, yeah, I'd want the numbers to match the reality.
Good luck to us all! Hope it comes soon. If the audit is not publicly released today, it would be my guess that it is completed by the auditing firm, but simply not ready for public perusal. |
