sam, I wish I could take credit, but I was bullish on this company for too long to congratulate myself. craig has been here since May of '97 (at least) with an accurate assessment of this company. Because I shorted it after I sold out that day in March, I was able to eke out a positive return in the name. For all the trading I did, and all the effort I expended into this name, it just wasn't worth it in hindsight. I have a hard time believing that a fresh round of shareholders are going through the same changes we did last year. The same (only updated) promises of great success just around the corner. The same attacks on anyone who dares to question the story, or the results of past promises.
I will take my main profit from this name in lessons learned. When the company makes promises, and doesn't deliver, it is not wise to get excited when they issue new promises of great things to come. When companies use floorless convertibles to obtain financing, it's time to say goodbye. When the CEO gets a margin call, you know you're in the wrong company. Lots of folks have said that Par wouldn't buy unless he knew he was going to make money. Two questions come to my mind about that: Why did he buy at 33 (adjusted for split) way back when? Where did he come up with $1 million dollars to buy recently? If he had that million last year, why did he let his stock get sold off through the "margin call"? If the stock that was sold last year was truly to satisfy a margin call, he didn't get any of the proceeds. It's really strange that the CEO of the company can come up with a million bucks to throw into the stock when just about every common shareholder is sitting with losses in this name.
Barb |
