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Biotech / Medical : Pharmos (PARS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RockDoc who wrote (471)	2/6/1999 8:36:00 PM
From: Ariella	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1386

Rockster -- As I indicated on the Yahoo PARS Board, I am very happy, based upon what I have observed from your previous posts, to learn that you will be working as a consultant for the company. I think your experience and expertise will bring value to the company and to us. In the spirit of full disclosure, I would request that you let us know your full name, and the actual nature of the consulting relationship. My experience and expertise include 5 years in business journalism, 12 years as a Street analyst (last title held: Senior Associate Research Director of a 75-member research team), 20 years as an active private trader, 5 years as a business consultant, including a stint as consultant for defense-related companies in my local community in connection with a special loan program from the Small Business Administration/Department of Defense. (Nowadays I rarely do consulting work because it's more lucrative for me to trade stocks). I hold a master's degree and am ABD on a doctorate. All the people you mention who place their last names on the threads are men; I keep mine private because society is what society is and this is a public message board. The term "several aspects of corporate communications" to describe what I will be doing for Pharmos was suggested by management. Over the past many months you have solicited the individual shareholders participating on these threads to provide you with significant information including the number of shares of PARS we own or control. You also initiated, along with Omer, the somewhat ill-fated "PARS Club" in which you and he had control over who and who could not participate. For the record, I took my promise of privacy on those issues very seriously. Because I learned after the fact that a certain number of shareholders who work together to influence management (can't remember number now -- might be 5 or 7) are required to file certain SEC documents -- and I did not want to be in a position to have to file such documents -- I quickly erased all of the letters except three that seemed to speak to the general concerns of all. These I forwarded to management. If memory serves correctly, the total number of self-declared holdings of the people who responded, plus a few large shareholders on the thread who have corresponded privately with me, came to about 7% of currently outstanding PARS shares. Omer and I said we wanted "control" of the club simply because we were tired of the obscene postings on Yahoo! We never had to keep anyone out because everyone adhered to our Terms of Service request. Its "ill-fated" short life, as you call it, is indicative of the fact that Omer and I were not looking to build a following, not looking to coax anyone to stay long in the shares or to influence trading in any way. Though you and I have had some personal exchanges via Email, you have continued to keep your own identity confidential. I believe in light of your current relationship with the company, that you should disclose this requested information to us, along with the actual number of shares that you own or, as you have characterized in the past, indirectly control. Rockster, you sign here anonymously for good reasons. So do I, as stated above. A few people on the thread and I have exchanged personal information, even phone numbers. But I obviously can't do that with everyone and shouldn't be asked to. A consultant is not an insider and my divulging my new relationship with the company is actually a good-faith attempt to explain my near-term absence on the thread. Even people within a firm are not all insiders, as designated by SEC rules, and do not have to make public disclosure of their holdings. PARS and I tried to err on the side of conservatism on this issue, so I voluntarily cease posting so as not to influence trading in any way. I trust that this request is not seen as "out of bounds." However this is an admittedly unusual situation where a fellow shareholder has either been recruited for or has solicited an employment relationship with the company. Unusual? Yes, I suppose so. But the CEO I worked for on Wall Street was an absolute beast. By contrast, the management at PARS is filled with intelligent, honest, hard-working people. This is an assignment, no matter how short-term, that brings me a great deal of pleasure, in other words. I would have done it for free if we didn't live in a world where "free" carries with it an assumption of poor quality. Indeed, if you only knew how many memos I have written the company over the past year filled with ideas/suggested strategies/etc. culled from my high level work in a publicly-traded company dedicated to communicating with the investment community, you would understand this is a case where management and I fell into a working relationship before we realized what had happened. My wanting them to succeed is self-serving because I own shares in the company. But I also just want to see them succeed because I like them as people. If I get a chance, I'll make one last post this weekend to explain the karmic connection between myself, PARS and actor Robert Mitchum. Now that -- that's a story! Regards, Ariella ;-)