The company over the last year has had between 30 - 60 million in cash and a very large line of credit (30 m?), with very little debt. With the recent sale of the mortgage division for 21 million, a 20 million dollar stock buy back is not going to hurt them at all.
I assure you that CheckFree is investing more money than ever into expanding the level and quality of services. In Fact, one of the reasons Pete revised earnings was so that CheckFree can make the investment it needs to into its core products. Kight said, "Rather than alter our planned investments to meet our previous earnings estimates, we will remain focused on our core business strategy as electronic bill presentment is defined and embraced. We will continue to fund projects that expand our core financial electronic commerce offerings, drive intuitive ease of use, guarantee service quality at a dial-tone level, and enhance the seamless end-to-end customer care we offer to banks, billers, and their customers."
>>> There are plenty of growth opportunities to further strengthen CKFR relative to adding technology, expanding services and broadening International market coverages.
They are already doing this today with very large investments in Genesis/RPP, BOSS, etc. As far as CheckFree investing internationally at this point in time, I think it would be a bad decision to make any large international investments. There are many issues surrounding electronic bill payment internationally (Govt. regs, consumer preference, etc.) I like the current approach CheckFree is taking, in that they are looking selectively into a few markets and looking for partnerships.
>>>Enough of this discussion.
I'm known on this thread for beating a dead horse (among other things)
In my opinion, CheckFree management has the best of intentions. I also believe that they would not announce a stock buy back unless they had every intention of doing just that.
Benny(IMHO) |
