I attended the meeting and have just returned and am ready to debrief myself.
From what I can gather of the scattered comments which I have read as to what Evans claimed to have gleaned from the meeting, it would appear that he attended a different meeting than I did. If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes, I would be convinced that he wasn't there. This can partially be explained by the fact that we view this company from diametrically differing perspectives and I am sure that this point will be made in ensuing posts to this board. I attended this meeting for two reasons and two reasons only. First the plane tickets and room reservations had been bought and paid for long before 1/22 and my wife deserved the much needed vacation I had promised her.
Secondly, I wanted to be able to look the people who had the bulk of my money in their control in the eye and see if they were as honest and forthright as the longs say or if they were the lying thieves that our short associates would have us believe.
During the meeting, I was amazed at the lack of rancor which existed. I had the feeling that the meeting was going to be tumultuous but instead, it was quite orderly and was in fact not punctuated by any reactionary comments which might well have been anticipated in light of the recent developments. I found a shareholder group which was an older and wiser type of investor than any other company which I have ever owned. It did not seem that there were any people on the verge of suicide at the news and it seemed that most people were willing to sit out the storm and allow the company to implement its plan. I was amazed by both the candor and the availability of the corporate officials both before and after the meeting.
Individual conversations with these officials allayed many of my fears and I left the meeting with the first truly positive vibes I have had concerning ABTX since that fateful night of 1/22.
I will relate two conversations for what they are worth:
1) Conversation with legal counsel- the lawsuits fall within the coverage of the company's D&O policy. The representation of the company and the payment of any settlement (nuisance value if any)
would also be thusly covered. The multitudinous and redundant cases as filed are in accordance with Federal class action legislation which allows for multiple law firms to file upon the same set of facts so as to allow for the broadest inclusion of class members. This is not legislation which was passed to effect ABTX but rather has been on the books as long as there has been class-action lawsuits. When the period ending 90 days after the initial filing concludes (ie. 4/15/99), the company's lawyers will then file their motions for summary judgement and the suits will hopefully start to disintegrate. There are actually only two lawsuits here. The first deals with the alleged accounting irregularities and the second deals with the alleged stock manipulation. The general counsel was extremely confident as to favorable results in both regards. OF GREATEST IMPORTANCE IN THIS REGARD IS THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION " WHAT IS OUR DEDUCTIBLE" THE ANSWER IS $150,000.00. THIS MEANS THAT NO MATTER WHAT THE SHORTS WOULD LIKE US TO BELIEVE TO THE CONTRARY, OUR GREATEST EXPOSURE WITH REGARD TO THE LAWSUITS IS $300,000.00. This is hardly as cataclysmic as we would be falsely led to believe now is it?
2.) Conversation with JT- Q. If we stay independent will there be enough money available to handle the cost of the extensive R&D that we are talking about. A. There will be enough funds available to take care of everything that we have on the table.
Although it may well have been referenced elsewhere, I thought that JT's most important comment during the meeting itself was the following "...we didn't say that we never received any offers, the media said we didn't receive any offers." When this comment was made, JT's glance was then and there directly aimed at Evans.
As has also probably been elsewhere reported, JT did leave the cat out of the bag that he would be stepping down. These were his last comments in the general meeting. He had also stated that he would continue to be available for the purpose of behind the scenes work with the broad hint that securing an equity partner/ buyer wasn't an issue that had in any way been abandoned but had rather been suspended so as to allow a more orderly approach w/o the artificial time constraints imposed by the announcement of10/8.
I went to the meeting a skeptic and returned home a believer again. I have been burned badly. To be willing to jump back into the fire, I assure you I needed to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. I am.
OSO |
