I never know what to make of those CNet lists, but they can't be taken as negative at least. So there still isn't any indication that things aren't going well. Plus, if they were going to warn, they would have certainly done it by now. The quarter is almost booked and I don't think it is that heavily backloaded.
The problems with this company are almost all external to them, but they don't seem to know how to deal with the external. They are like the proverbial little girl. What they are good at, they are very good at, and what they are bad at, they are horrible at.
They are very good at the most basic and important thing, which is running a tight ship and making money. But they stink at converting that into value. And they miss opportunities to take advantage of their strength because they are so risk adverse.
But you have to take the good with the bad I guess. As much as I criticize them for their shortcomings, I owe them credit for what they have accomplished. These are the guys who have consistently made money over the last two years or so and built up that big cash pile. And when most everyone in the sector was coughing up money last summer, these guys never even came close to a loss, and that's with their biggest internal mistake with the SBLive delay.
I'm still betting that if they continue to do well on the bottom line, eventually they will be rewarded in the stock price. But they could certainly do a better job themselves at trying to get that value recognized. (And I still think they should take some bold moves like buying out AURL.)
Dennis |
