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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoLoLoLita who wrote (6761)	4/9/1998 7:53:00 PM
From: VLAD	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 23519

David C, You should try to find out who made the decisions to buy at that level and what the criteria was for making the decision. It just may shed some light on exactly why they bought at that price. I am more angered with the money spent on the direct advertising. I think it was a big waste of money. My plan would have been to direct all efforts on getting word out to the MDs and to provide some test samples. I would let Pfizer spend the bucks on getting the public's attention and would just be sure that the MDs are well versed on MUSE so that the MDs could offer MUSE as an alternative to Viagra or as a back up if Viagra fails to work. Just my opinion but again as with the buy back price, hindsight is 50/50. VLAD

To: LoLoLoLita who wrote (6761)	4/9/1998 9:56:00 PM
From: VLAD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

Dave, Perhaps towards the end of the run up vivus did all or most of its buying. Perhaps they did heavy buying from 13 to 15+ thinking at the time that the momentum was up and the stock price may never have gone lower? Technical analysis may have suggested that the gap was going to be filled? Perhaps the buyer for vivus thought that if he didn't buy back shares at 13 to 15+ then he would have to buy all the shares at 16 to 20? It seems to me that we can't blame them for not predicting the future. Even at 14.75 the price was still over 65% off the 52 week high. At 10 we are about 75% off the high. It is easy to say that they paid 33% more than if they bought in at 10 but I myself (and I think most everyone on this thread) thought it highly unlikely for the price to go back down to 10 AFTER doing a triple bottom and showing good support at 10.

To: LoLoLoLita who wrote (6761)	4/9/1998 10:56:00 PM
From: Cacaito	Respond to of 23519

The buyback is much older than last december CC. The buyback was first announced around march/april last year when the price was about $15, they continued buying way up, and they already had purchase 400,000 shares by the last december CC. The initial plan was to buyback 1,000,000 shares pre-split (it turn into a 2,000,000 post-split). 1,600,000 - 400,000 = 1,200,000 shares after 12/97. A big amount. For me the best option was to keep the cash or invest it in some fruitful adquisition to diversify the company, or pay expenses. Many wanted the buyback to squeeze, support price so on. My guess is that the average price of the buys included many shares bought above $20, and many in the $10 to $15 range. It could explain both the pick to $15, and the support at S10. A buyback is a net transfer of wealth to shareholders, especially to true long term investors, daytraders and short term ones could benefit if they could read when is the right time (not talking insider trading). Besides, there is not tax to pay for the gains of a buyback versus a dividend, so long term investors get that benefit too. I strongly believe that the lawsuits against Vivus will not get a dime. The wording of pr releases is very careful and the ones who read things like "challenge" or "flat demand" will understand the protection those words provide.

To: LoLoLoLita who wrote (6761)	4/10/1998 12:09:00 AM
From: RT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

David, When I posted my comment about the buy back I did not have the numbers. I was just encouraged to see that the buy back had taken place. In fact, when Vivus was recently hovering around the $ 10 mark I E-mailed Nina that it was time to do some serious buying before the stock collapsed to the $ 7 range. That day, Vivus traded in excess of 3m shares, and the stock recovered nicely. I assumed that it was the company buying. YOU ARE RIGHT, after looking over the chart, it does make one wonder. RT