It's so nice to be talked about in the world. Maybe my names helps. I mean, after all, who wouldn't like a Party!
Even though both of you sometimes drive me nuts (as I'm sure I drive each of you nuts) I like you both. This absent-the-face-of-the-other and other humanly characteristics indeed make for interesting communication. I try never to forget that there's a human being at the end of all these keyboards or prompting the voice recognition systems we use.
As an aside, Has anybody thought how voice recognition might impact advertising of the future?
But what is our objective here? To be ahead of the company or behind it? We can't tell the company what to do, but we can hope that it does the right things. We bank our stock bets accordingly.
So far, what I've seen this company accomplish, throughout its acquisition strategy, is magnificent. It's certainly not doomy though some would make it sound gloomy. In all, they've made great strides. Over the course of time, most negative assertions have been refuted. In fact, all has gone quite well, except for the Wired attack on Hayton which become an attack on the company which become an attack on we investors.
If you take the Wired piece out of the puzzle you've got a great new and growing company doing leading edge stuff. So lets, for purposes of this discussion, assume Wired was influenced by the SIM disgruntlement. I mean the media is so powerful it can even make a good man look bad, can't it? And it can make a bad man look good too. Whatever the case, what Wired did sure looked like a payback bash to me.
The other downside that comes to mind is the confusion over whether Universal Commerce was acquired or not. The company claimed it did, but somewhere in the course of events the acquisition went south and a strategic alliance for business was established instead. But since the relationship between the owner of Universal and Tom Burgess is so strong (dating back to college and career-shared duties), I don't have a problem with this arrangement. It's good to know that Universal Commerce is there ready to join in the action.
Other battles of the past: Whether there really existed an office (there are several throughout the country)--whether Meatchem was real or not (he sold his company to NETZ and served as interim CEO)--whether the technology existed (it's demonstrated, sold and in R&D)--whether the ESVS merger was real (it is, and in the mill)--whether Hayton was an officer or board member (he's not; he's a financial advisor to NetVest which has invested into the company)--whether Hayton signs the checks (he doesn't, Mr. Messina does)--whether Steve Lair was with the company (he's chairman of the board).
Well, this list goes on and on. I can't even think of all of 'em. Name some more. But in virtually every one of these instances, I came down defending against the above assertions. And you'll remember that those arguments were long and great from both sides.
But we can't ignore the Wired story. Though old news now, the fact still exists that Wired went from being completely positive about NETZ to being completely negative. All of which happened during the SIM revolt. You can draw your own conclusion. I've got mine as to how all that happened.
Completely now blessed with turds from Wired, investors began questioning NETZ even more. Resultantly, Joe Copia sold his stock and announced he wouldn't buy again until the financials came out. Aleta echoed the call for the audit. Investors then began peppering the company for release of the financials.
Time progressed and folks began calling contacts all over the country asking questions about the finances. Isn't it easy to see that such a method can only result in variant responses at best, subject to each person's interpretation of what was stated by the respective contacts? Hence the anticipation, build-up and consequent confusion over the audited report. Add into this time period a change in IR/PR firms, just for the sake of clarity.
The ESVS SEC filing noted a report would be completed and delivered within a 45-day time frame. Though there has been no public announcement that this has been satisfied, there is also no public announcement to say that it wasn't completed and delivered to ESVS, as so stipulated.
In my view, the audit has been satisfied and is now serving as a helpful tool in the restructuring combination of the two companies into one. It will be released, as promised, when the company feels it's appropriate.
Think of this. Wouldn't you rather the document come out at a time where the company is strongest to support its findings? If you're gonna make a run at Doubleclick is it not best to have your own house in order? So let's wait and see.
Meanwhile, we can analyze ourselves to kingdom come. Personally, I'd rather talk baseball.
One more thing: I can't wait for the Nasdaq Party and victory celebration I know to come. |
