Anthony a little more on PFOO although it seems to have fallen from grace rather quickly today
Stock Detective Light - March 8, 1999...
Heads up for investors who recently sunk their money into Comgen, or World Star Asia or Newman Technology or, or, or………Oh, what's the difference once you reach the bottom line, which reads a big fat zero. Probably less, if the company had any financial statements for investors to review.
Last month the company announced yet another change both in name and mission to Planet411.com (OTC BB: PFOO) , "whose mandate is the creation of a network of virtual cities of the world that are replicas of existing real cities."
Go figure.
A year ago, Comgen Corp. was known as Noble Financial Group, before changing its name to Newman Energy Technologies. Shortly after that switch, Newman announced that it wanted to acquire an American direct marketing company whose goal is "to become the largest supplier of Internet access and related products, services and information in the world."
Barely a month later, Newman changed its name again, to World Star Asia, canceled the acquisition plans (as well as a 1.5 million share private placement) and announced that it was going into the car manufacturing business.
Direct marketing, building cars…..same thing.
World Star Asia, once again through proposed acquisitions, would have controlled the licenses for building factories that produce World Star Utility Vehicles, supposedly lightweight alternatives to the behemoths hatched earlier this decade in Detroit.
It was at this point that World Star Asia first came to the Stock Detective's attention due to its planned affiliation with B.A.T. International., and we added it to our Red Light collection.
World Star Asia quickly abandoned that venture, became Comgen and briefly floated around as a development-stage company in search of something to develop. Then in mid-November, Comgen began trying to convince investors that it would get them in on the ground floor of the greatest product since gasoline itself: a process that turns waste oil into diesel fuel. Comgen said it was in negotiations with two European inventors who needed capital to market their product and set up processing sites.
Around this time Comgen had a market cap of more than $58 million, even though it had no product, no revenues nor even clear evidence of a valid contract. Stranger still, the company announced a 3-for-1 stock split, which sent its share price down to $2.50. At that price, it made brokers handling the stock subject to penny stock rules, which, among other things, can hamper liquidity.
It was a strange move, indeed. A company with shares trading below $10 would seem a more likely candidate for a reverse split, which would beef up the price. But, according to Comgen's investor relations contact, the European investors were looking for more stock - forget the fact that they would still have the same percentage of shares outstanding.
The last word on Comgen was the imminent closing of the waste oil-to diesel fuel deal. But that apparently fell through and now plans for a network of virtual cities is the deal du jour. Planet411.com, according to its information-only website, will allow "citizens" to shop, transact business and have deliveries from the city of their choice all via the Internet. Pretty much all of this already available online, although not segregated city-by-city.
Information available on Planet411.com doesn't tell investors whether any merchants have signed up, although the company says the virtual cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver will be up and running by May.
But, instead of calling your broker, maybe hit the speed dial on 911.
Stay tuned and, as always, tread lightly………………………
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