Re: TPEG - from the Raging Bull
I talked to Tom this morning at Strategic Capital Consultants (SCC) and can report the
following information. I'd ask others to followup and see if we get a consistent story. I am
paraphrasing, but these are all their words. This is in no particular order.
(1) SCC plans a series of press releases over the next week or so. Plan on about one per
day. They tried for an all-in-one press release yesterday, but found it was too hard given the
status of some of the pending deals (i.e., they are only in the letter of intent stage for some of
them).
(2) They could have done a PR yesterday that described the letter of intent for the first
internet acquisition, but decided to wait until the deal is firm. Their motivation was to fulfill the
statement Meyer made to NASDAQ about a PR in a "day or so".
(3) SCC itself is made up of four primary groups; management team support, corporate
finanace, corporate acquisitions and investor relations. Tom is in the latter group. They also
supported the CALP/IMON merger prior to the deal closing. They have no relationship at all
with Liberty Capital.
(4) The recently completed (and announced via PR today) divestiture of Grasso/Jacobson
takes all debts and obligations with it (e.g., quarterly dividend payment to them described in
their SEC filings). The resignations of Grasso and Jacobson from TPEG are consistent with
the spinoff. As part of this transaction, G&J return 1.65M shares of common stock reducing
the amount of outstanding shaes to 6.5M and float to 3.0M. This transaction also eliminates
$2.2M of overhead. They do not plan to do much business with the spun off company; any
such cross-licensing deals would likely be private arrangements.
(5) The MediaWorks International (MWI) sale is proceeding and will likely be closed by early
next week. The $5M number arose because that was one of the offers. The president of
SCC is flying out today to help close the deal.
(6) The company has working captial of about $1M today, prior to the MWI sale proceeds.
(7) The 1:6 reverse stock split mentioned in the last SEC filing was part of closing the MWI
transaction. Since they are selling it, there is no plan by TPEG for go forward with the
reverse stock split.
(8) Irwin Meyer plans to stay on and (as well as being a successful Hollywood
producer/director) apparently has a experience as a VC. In fact, one of their likely first
private internet acquisitions was brought to the table by Meyer.
(9) Their plan is to acquire about 3-5 e-commerce and internet related companies over the
next 6-12 months. Their business approach is to use TPEG as a holding company similar to
the CMGI business model. They would spin off, at a later date, these internet companies and
keep about 30%-40% of the stock. Shareholders of TPEG may also get the opportunity to
buy some stock of these companies as part of the spinoff. (Indirectly you have equity through
them via the TPEG shares)
(10) The name and symbol of the company will changes soon to better reflect their new
business model. |
