Question about Morale:
OK, I have read through today's posts, and I am pissed and disappointed also. Outright accounting fraud. Pretty bad, and more to come. OK.
But I hold some CD as part of an overall portfolio of high quality issues picked from a few indexes that I like (Money 30, Wired 40); though the qualification "high quality" is thrown into question by this latest episode with CD. But, nonetheless, I am planning on following my strategy of holding CD, which i bought at 19, when it made its big drop in April.
My question, though, is: If I am an employee of Avis, or Coldwell Banker, or one of those hotel chains, or any of the other CD holdings, then how the hell do I react to this news? Given the fact that much of CUC and HFS' synergy was supposed to be the more efficient transferral of information to capitalize on consumer market opportunity (affinity marketing), morale is pretty crucial to the strategy; in many cases, these are employees at the heart of a big, complex IT network, with websites, consumer databases, etc. Do they have big equity option plans? If so, well, forget about nice big equity increases for 98, eh? My question is - are there any CD employees out there, or anyone with any contact with them (anyone booking a car at Avis?) that can give the board a quick update on the impact of a 30+% drop in stock price on employee morale? |
