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Technology Stocks : SkyMall (SKYM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clifford Topel who wrote (783)	1/1/1999 8:38:00 PM
From: Tom Hua	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 987

why would partner sell to CEO at 7 when stock was considerable more??? My only guess is that he was restricted from doing this, somehow. Any ideas??? Clifford, It was stated on CNBC that the options for the CEO to acquire his partners' shares expire at the end of 98. This whole thing was "well" planned by the CEO to rip off his partners and to fatten his own bank account. Regards, Tom

To: Clifford Topel who wrote (783)	1/2/1999 10:12:00 AM
From: Dorine Essey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 987

Clifford, I think we will all be in for a big surprise. Check this out. Look at the bottom of the page regarding earnings etc. Dorine Happy New Yearhttp://207.82.250.251/cgi-bin/linkrd?http://www.companysleuth.com/index.cfm?company%3DSKYM SKYMALL INC. (SKYM) 21 1/8 -6 5/8. The best gifts this holiday season come in press releases. As the air continues to come out of this in-flight-catalog company after, the company's CEO is skipping all the way to the bank, due to the significant run-up in the stock the past three days. The stock lost close to 32% of its value yesterday and is losing another 22% this morning. However, this is nothing to what Robert M. Worsley will pocket because of the price run. The initial run-up from the $12 1/2 level on Monday was prompted by the announcement that the company had enjoyed significant Internet sales during Q4, more than tripling last year's sales via this medium. In today's frothy market conditions in which anything related to the Internet means that there is an opportunity to scam investors, the announcement by SkyMall of its success on the Net was like flashing red meat in front of a lion. No sooner had the company made its announcement before the stock had shot up to over $40 on Tuesday. The two day madness, however, began to unravel yesterday and continues today after SkyMall announced that Mr. Worsley had exercised options to buyout his partners. Nice friends. Anyone in there right mind would do the same, especially when the exercised price is between $6.75 and $7.35 a share. Even with today's continued slide in the stock, Mr. Worsley is well ahead of the game. Cant' blame him to much for the windfall he's realizing. Instead, with the stock still 69% above last Thursday's closing price, investors (daytraders) have given Mr. Worsley a very nice post-Christmas gift and one in which he's utilizing to increase his stake in the company. And who says that there is no Santa Claus.

To: Clifford Topel who wrote (783)	1/2/1999 10:49:00 AM
From: Don Pueblo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 987

Here's the way it probably went down, Cliff: The new guy has 600,000 shares of stock, and he has an option to buy the old guy's 2 million shares for a set amount, thus taking out the old guy's interest in the company and getting a 50% stake for himself. Let's say the new guy had an option to buy the old guy's stock for 7 bucks. At the time the old guy signed the deal, the stock was 1 or 2 or 3 bucks (or whatever), so at the time, it was a "good deal" for the old guy. The option has an expiration date, say (theoretically) it was Dec. 31. Then one of two things (theoretically) occurred. Either A) the new guy got the luckiest play of the decade, since (theoretically) he had to exercise his option to buy the 2 million shares on or before a certain date (theoretically Dec. 31, 1998) and he decided to file some time ago to sell his 600,000 shares of stock last Monday. Monday rolled around and the stock opened at around 22 and blazed up to 48 and he sold his 600,000 shares, theoretically at a basis of around 35 or better. Nothing illegal or immoral or anything else about that, it's business as usual. The stock happened to run up from 4 to 48 and topped out on the exact day the new guy had said months ago that he planned to maybe sell his 600,000 shares "on or after" [Monday]. or B) the new guy "figured out" that the stock would run on day 2 after a positive announcement, and put the announcement out the prior Friday. If that is what happened, (and that is what everyone is interested in), then the old guy, who was a Board Member or whatever, was kept in the dark about it (theoretically) and got boned in a major way, because had the option not been exercised, he could have sold his stock on Jan. 1 (after the expiration of the option agreement) and made 20 bucks on his 2 million shares. Or kept his stock, which would have (theoretically) hindered the new guy in his (thoeretical) attempt to take a majority interest in the company. The old guy got 7 bucks instead of 20 on 2 million shares. But he had an agreement to sell for 7, (or whatever it was) and that's the way things go. So now, we wonder. Was it the Luckiest Play in 10 Years, or did the new guy orchestrate the whole transaction in order to gain a 50% stake in the company with no money out of his own pocket. Stuff like this happens every day. This was high profile because the new guy was on CNBC the day he was blowing out of his own shares and buying the old guy's shares. The point? What about the shareholders that bought at 35 or 40 or 48. There were some. Some still hold the stock. They are not happy campers. They think maybe (maybe) the new guy does not have their best interests at heart. It's all speculation at this point; as I said, the new guy could be Mr. Lucky, in which case who better to be running the show at SKYM! Joe Kernan thinks it looked a bit fishy. He ain't alone. But it's just one guy's opinion, and we will probably never know the actual truth.