More comments to message #227,plus some stock movement info.
Yes, if you have seen my earlier postings. If the patent did not hold up in court, there is no valid patent to begin with. Not only that the licensees no longer need to pay, as far as I know, they have the legal right to get back every dime paid as "royalty" if the E-data still worth anything then.
Since the attorneys are being paid by the stocks, stock price alone shall have the ULTIMATE control to the performance of these professionals. If one is pretty sure that this patent will hold, in my opinion, it would only be wise to let the attorneys to proove a landslide in court. A victory in court will get investors much better gain than just settling the case for peanuts. Someone post to this forum, I could not remember who, said the patent cost the holder $200K only. If the patent could never proven valid, premature stock price momentum would only give an extra avenue for one to walk away with suitcases of dough prior to the law suit. Would an investor want to get the best performance for every dime that he've invested or he simply just want to contribute to someone else fortune?
For all that criticisms, only a undisputable verdict will clear the name and benefit the company and its long term shareholders. At this stage, I believe that a "poor" attorney is leaner and meaner and will work twice as hard. Was it their intention to go up to the bench to tell the world that their client has it? Let them. If I were the CEO, I will use this strategy also because I know a court verdict will cost the company less in the long run in litigation. On the other hand, a crafty business man might drop all suits on those who would fight vigorously, settle and get payments from those who would not. Who care if the patent is valid or not or whether E-Data will sue companies like Microsoft who were likely to fight. The latter approach results much less value to the share holders, but is better than running out of resources at the middle of the trail or worst yet, getting it overturned big time in court. Soon, you'll see which approach will the company's management chooses -- an other important indicator on managment performance for adding values to shareholders and not just the insiders. I am still neutral as of today and am not yet a shareholder.
On 5-17, last Friday, the price were down to $9.875 in active trading - some 2.5 million shares. Guess what, the total number of transactions were 124 only. Simple math told me an average transaction is around 20,400 shares!! Today, at around 1:00PM, the stock were at $9.00, volume was 124,500, number of trade was 96, averaging 1280 share per trade; way down in size (share/trade). Verify these information with your broker since this is not a conventional listed stock. Form your own intelligent conclusion. I try to balance myself with both side of the issues and be objective. I hope I could find more time to post to this interesting stock later. Watch closely, knowledge is best weapon in this game. Best wishes. |
