To: Juli who wrote (7708 ) 8/11/1998 11:10:00 PM From: James Harold Alton Respond to of 19331
Juli, I can relate to the frustration in getting accurate information on the Convertible Preferred issues, but I can now look back and realize that while this was an issue for me that I felt was important and worthy of learning about, that this same concern was not shared by others that I was trying to get information from. The Convertible Preferred issue is complex and requires a lot of hours of research to fully understand. If we ask questions of a group that isn't interested in this issue then it's not unlikely that we will get incorrect answers. This does not mean that those people are witholding information, it just probably means that they either aren't sure about the answer but have a best guess, or maybe they know the answer but don't understand the issues well enough to put it together. Believe it or not, I have not yet spoken with anyone that had done enough research on these issues besides yourself and Murphy that was able to answer my questions, and I have talked to a lot of people. (G) What I learned from this, was that. If you are asking questions that return conflicting answers, then you are either dealing with a complex issue that is not well understood or you are talking to the wrong person about that issue. Once I knew the correct questions to ask and connected with the right person I got the answers I had been looking for, just as you did. The good news that resulted from the research that was done on these issues, was that we can now breath easier knowing that all of the Preferred issues except for the F are history and cannot affect our share price any longer. If Murphy can put together the bond issue, then perhaps not only is the F gone, but there might not even be anymore CP's issued. James