A few random thoughts from the INSP "merger" meeting
It was a surprisingly small meeting, with a little over 100 shareholders in attendance. The meeting was handled by Arun (pronounced Aroon, I believe) Sarin (CEO), who just casually walked up to the front of the small room, introduced himself, and invited everyone who hadn't yet gotten some coffee and goodies, to go ahead and do so before he started the meeting.
I really like this guy. A low-key fellow who is disarmingly casual and friendly, with a delightful sense of humor, possessing great intelligence, and outstanding personal communications skills. My general impression of him was a person of great integrity. He looks you straight in the eye, seems to take great interest in what you have to say, and gives you very honest and direct responses to your questions, with no bullsh*t or hype. You end up feeling like you're chatting with a wonderful old friend.
The only other person up front with him during the meeting was Ellen Alben, Senior Vice President, and Legal & Business Affairs Secretary. Arun also introduced two Senior VP's and BOD members (all casually standing in the back of the room); Tammy Halstead, Joanne Harrell, as well as Nicole Knowles (not sure of her title).
Following the business part of the meeting (which dragged on for almost two full minutes <g>), the question and answer part started. I appeared to be the only GNET shareholder in the room, and only one who had heard of Silicon Investor. I even helped Arun a little bit, expounding on several of his answers. In fact, I was the first to mention Paul Allen's 1/3 ownership of GNET, the DIGEO broadband partnership, GNET's large "cash" reserves, and GNET's five continuous quarters of making "profits," etc...He kept thanking for the help. <ggg>
Nothing too earth shattering was revealed during the questioning, although perhaps some of you will get a little something out of the questions and answers. This was my first personal exposure with anyone at INSP, and perhaps my initial perceptions will help some of you get a little flavor of what INSP is all about. My notes are very rough, so I welcome anyone else who was there to correct anything I write. The "quotes" may not all be exact, but they're best I can come up with from both memory, and my notes. At several points during the questioning period it sort of became a conversation between just Arun and me. In fact after the meeting (following a chat with Arun) I was surrounded by INSP shareholders drilling me with questions about GNET, and it's management This went on for over 30 minutes. I finally had to ask then to take numbers, and form a neat straight line around the block. :) Sure wish some of you other Trillionaires had been there to help me out, as it got a little overwhelming. <ggg>
Anyway, here's a few of the Questions, and Arun's responses:
Q. What has caused the Market to be so unhappy with the merger?
A. "Go2Net was not followed as widely followed in the Market, and it came as a bit of a surprise to Wall Street, not understanding the incredible synergies and potential involved."
Q. Why did InfoSpace want to merge with Go2Net?
A. (A rather lengthy series of replies), but in brief, included the following comments: GNET bring a wealth of technology (narrowband, and broadband etc..), outstanding management and employees etc...
Q. What about the "blending" of the two companies cultures?
A. I liked really Arun's response, saying he has been spending considerable time over at GNET, and he couldn't tell any difference between one office and the other in terms of business "culture." Each were started by visionaries. Each have a passion to "win." Each are very "Net" focused. Each are extremely "customer" focused, wanting to "keep the customer satisfied" and absolutely delighted with the service provided at all times, and above all to keep them returning for "more." Each have the same energy, vision, values, priorities, and virtually identical atmosphere.
Q. Has INSP put any "feelers" out to SPRINT (the only major US wireless carrier, not having a direct relationship, but with AOL), and what happened in Japan with the NTT DoCoMo deal (signing a wireless deal with AOL)?
A. Arun said he really couldn't respond directly to that question specifically, except to say (with sort of a twinkle in his eye), "We will be actively talking to ALL the players. They are many opportunities for the "new" INSP to be involved in many ways. I took this to sort of mean, as Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over til it's over."
Q. What will Naveen Jain's (Chairman) roll be in the new "merged" company?
A. He will be the "Chief Strategist." However, in reality all the top management will be in sort of in inter-changeable rolls. They will run the business in a very open/empowering manner, with very little bureaucracy, and relatively little hierarchy. Very fluid, and taking creative energy from everyone. A lot of flow of personnel and changing responsibilities will occur throughout the company, as new rolls evolve.
Q. What international expansion is being planned?
A. Current priorities in Europe at the moment are primarily in The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, (and one other I didn't get down). In Asia current priorities are Japan, China, Korea, and India. Others are include Australia and Brazil.
Q. Who does InfoSpace see as your competition?
A. After this merger with Go2Net today, we will be creating the first real integrated end-to-end infrastructure company encompassing four major "spaces" simultaneously (narrowband, broadband, wireless, and merchant/consumer services). In a sense, there will be no direct competition that will have our breadth and depth, except for "niche" players.
Q. Do you see any future acquisitions for InfoSpace?
A. Although I can't comment on any specific possible additional acquisitions, we are mapping out the future, and will constantly be on the look-out for other potential companies or niche players to fill in the holes of our vision. It could be in many different possible forms, including alliances, partnerships, and/or acquisitions ("voice recognition" technology was referred to several times, as one possible example).
Q. What will happen to the Go2Net name?
A. That hasn't been determined yet. We may decide it will serve some useful purpose, and will continue to explore the options and possibilities.
Q. What will it take for Wall Street to accept this merger, and for us shareholders begin to see positive results in the share price?
A. Wall Street want to see RESULTS. They will. It's now very much a SHOW ME environment in the Market. The quarterly (combined) income and earnings statement coming out on October 25th should be a very good start.
Q. Do you secretly post on Silicon Investor, under the alias "levy"?
A. That 's highly confidential information, which I'm not a liberty to disclose.
(just seeing if you've read this far <VBG>)
One last question I asked Arun was,
Q. "When will the next analyst "dog-and-pony" show be rolled out, and will he and Russell Horowitz appear on CNBC today?"
A. He had a huge grin on his face with that one, but said most likely the next "public" comments regarding the merger will be on October 25th (less than two weeks), when the "combined" 3rd Quarter earnings report is announced.
A few other misc. comments Arun made were
(as close as I can recall):
"Sometimes, with huge rapid growth in company, parts of the entire system can get stressed. It takes a gentle hand to make it all work."
"In the Internet business it's easy to get de-focused, as there are so many opportunities out there. We must keep our eye on the ball, but also always remain open to exploring new opportunities."
"We are a "private label" business, and are NOT "brand" focused. You don't see the InfoSpace name with our clients." You see their name on the product or service. In a way, we're sort of wholesalers in that respect."
.........................................................
I realize that's most likely much more than many of you wanted to know,
but perhaps a few will get a little something out of it.
That's my report, and I'm sticking to it. <g>
Roger #49
PS. Oh, BTW you Go2Netrillionaires will be glad to know I proudly wore my rare button to the meeting, and showed it to Arun. He seemed to get quite a kick out of it. I also gave him a copy of the GNET Eulogy (post #21649), which I posted late last night (early this morning) on this thread. He thanked me, and said he would read it all. I'm glad several of you enjoyed it, and thank you all for the kind comments. Heck, I even discovered that below his stern exterior, HO-MEE is really just a sentimental sweetheart. <g> |
