As Boucher and Adler said, there have been tougher times before and the company weathered the storm.
I have to admit, though, that I'm beginning to lose heart. Too much focus on divestitures, restructuring, etc, and too little focus on making and selling stuff. I still worry about Boucher's comment "return to profitability" as presaging a loss this quarter. I don't see where growth is going to come from to support a stock price increase any time soon.
I sense that even Starowl, that perennial booster who always gets my spirits back up when I get down on the stock, is himself having increasing doubts.
What depresses me is that I have more ADPT stock than Boucher (the 98 proxy statement shows him as owing only 17,540 shares, which since he was a founder probably means that he dumped a whole lot of stock somewhere along the road), and Adler isn't listed -- I wonder what he has? It's too easy for him to walk away if his plans don't work out. I want somebody in charge who has a LOT of stock so they have a real incentive to make the company work, and a lot at risk if it doesn't. (Saviers fit the bill -- he had 895,852 shares on May 31, so that a $5 increase in the stock price brings him $4 million plus -- THAT'S incentive, but even so wasn't enough for him to succeed in maintaining the stock price! Or maybe even at $10-1/2, $9 million is enough for him? |
