A Jain Interview (one year ago this week)...
I'm sure many of you remember the live call-in interview Naveen Jain did with Leslie Walker, which was published in the online Washington Post, on March 30, 2000 (Warning: a really cute picture of Jain is included in link):
washingtonpost.com
On that day INSP closed at $65 1/8 per share, well off its high of $138.5, but still having a market cap of about $14 billion. Sort of interesting historical reading of Jain's "responses" just five days short of one year ago today. And since that interview, INSP has now become a d*mn PENNY STOCK, with a market cap much less than even a $1 billion. And that's even despite "merging" with GNET (which hadn't even been announced yet), once valued at over several billions all by itself. The "merger" was announced about 4 months after this interview, and didn't become "offical" until about 7 months after the interview. And now, INSP has had ONE OF THE WORST DROPS from it's stock price "high" (-98+%) OF ANY COMPANY'S STOCK VALUE in the entire NASDAQ or NYSE that still exist as a viable business.
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Excerpts from portions of just one question and answer between Walker and Jain
(*NOTE: There are many other "interesting" quotes in the article, including mention of the many INSP "deals" with companies like Vodaphone, AT&T Wireless, etc, etc., etc...):
LESLIE WALKER (portion of one question):
I don't want to put you on the spot, but your stock shot up like a rocket after going public at $14 over a year ago, and then lately has been declining sharply. Why the recent slide?
NAVEEN JAIN (portion of his answer):
If we continue to execute the way we have done in the past, we are in a position to dominate this industry with substantially larger market cap than Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel combined. If you are an investor, would you want to miss out on such a great opportunity. Just think on how would you answer this question from your grand children, "You mean, you could (have) bought Infospace at 25 Billion valuation and you didn't. I thought you were a smart guy"?
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My personal SUMMARY of Jain's answer above:
"If you are an INVESTOR, would YOU want to miss out on such a GREAT OPPORTUNITY."...
"...we are in a position to DOMINATE this industry..."
"...with SUBSTANTIALLY larger market cap that CISCO, MSFT, and Intel...COMBINED." COMBINED...MY GAWD!!!...COMBINED. You just can't get much bigger than that!!!...
"...you COULD HAVE bought Infospace at 25 BILLION valuation, and you DIDN'T..."
"I thought you were a smart guy"?...
Wow! Can you imagine some innocent "investors" (including "institutional") hearing a comments like that from the CEO and founder of a company, and thinking to themselves, "Geesh, I'm a smart guy, so if the CEO of the company feels that strongly, perhaps I better rush right out and put a ton of money into his company now before it's too late, while its price is so darn low and well off its historical highs, and well below a $25 billion market cap." Heck, he had already been called one of the high-tech "visionaries" of this generation, and already one of the wealthiest people in the entire world. How could someone go wrong following his advice about the company he founded himself? Especially when he strongly feels his company will be the WORLD'S FIRST TRILLION DOLLAR COMPANY.
But as we all now know, the stock continued to do much worse than just "tank" since that interview, and is now worth about the price/share of a single latte. And if it drops only about another buck-and-a half per share or so, it could be completely "de-listed" from the stock exchange. Just swell, huh? Amazing stuff!
Most of us on this thread now know that Jain had already dumped about $313,115,000 of his INSP shares in April & May of 1999, and in January of 2000, when he made that comment during the interview. In addition, we also now know that just over one month following that interview, Jain began to continue to dump additional shares of his INSP stocks worth approx. $81,772,000, from May 1 through June 13 of 2000.
Far be it from me to state that his above "answer" quoted in the interview might be considered by some to have the effect of trying to artificially "pump-up" a company's stock price with a massive degree of incredible "HYPE."
My dictionary defines "HYPE" to mean (among other things): "To publicize or promote, especially by extravagant, exaggerated, inflated, or deliberately misleading claims. A deception." I'll leave it up to others to decide for themselves what really "went down" regarding this company. Being made to feel "humble" is one way of putting it...BUT, just ONE way.
And as I've said before, IMHO
"there ought to be a law"......perhaps there is.
Roger
PS. OT: I was just thumbing through my dictionary the other day, and stumbled across a strange word. The word is "beiGNET" (I'm not making this up). Definition: "A square doughnut with no hole. An insidious Louisianian cousin of the doughnut, that exists to get powdered sugar on your face. A fritter, of Celtic origin." |
