To: Premier who wrote (4577 ) 2/21/1999 8:56:00 AM From: swedelo Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 6545
Mr. Premier & ALL, Premier, good to here from you again and thank you for the links you provided on INKT, and Mr Skinners' response to same. Please allow me to address your concerns in your postings yesterday. 1.) Concerning the issue of possible secondary offerings to raise cash, and especially your concern over insiders possibly beginning to "unload" soon. I don't believe that a secondary will be necessary now that revenues streams have begun, but if it did happen it is important to note that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Take for example many of the secondary IPO's on various internet entities and the increased valuations they created for their companies and shareholders. It would all depend on how and when (if) it was handled. As for insiders beginning to unload, I read an article recently that dealt with SEC regulations pertaining to companies structured like WINR. In the article it stated that insiders are not legally able to "unload" any of their stock (which is all restricted) for two (2) years after they begin trading publicly. Hence, since WINR began trading publicly in September of 1997, insiders holding restricted shares cannot legally "unload" or file for sale any of this stock until September of 1999. I believe this to be accurate, if anyone else has other information that contradicts this, please let me know!! Also, if my assertions are correct concerning the latest increase in shares outstanding to 14.3 million this means that the insiders position (ie Mr. Skinner Jr. & Sr., and I believe a couple of other small entities) of approx. 7.6 million shares has dropped their position from 62% to 53% of the total outstanding. In other words, if my speculation is correct, come September, if they sell more than 500,000 shares they would effectively lose control of the company, which I doubt seriously they will want to do if things are going as planned and on schedule. Also, bear in mind that there are only 20,000,000 shares authorized. This is one of the reasons I liked the setup of this company. Dilution should be minimal from here on as any further dilution through trade for services would need to be met by insiders either issuing and buying an equal amount at fair market value, or creating an option program, also at fair market value, in some manner to maintain a controling interest. So, as you can tell, I am not very concerned at this point about "insiders unloading of restricted shares". 2.) INKT as competition. I read the links you provided and found nowhere in them a discussion of exactly what kind of transaction (credit or debit) they are refering to, or any discussion of banking structure. I can only assume that this means that INKT platform is comparable to so many others which are set up to provide secure credit transactions for VISA and MC and possibly others. I believe I addressed these issues in a previous post that you may wish to reveiw.. Message 7594528 I also noted that INKT plans to charge anywhere from 5%-20% per transaction. Add this to the 6% that VISA and MC charge and any consumer using this technology to buy over the internet is paying anywhere from 11%-26% of his total price in transaction fees alone. This is exactly why I made the point in my previous posting that a "Debit" related market such as WINR will provide, should allow e-tailers to provide consumers with much better prices because of the vastly reduced processing charges and charge-back problems inherant to using current credit facilities. To INKT credit they do indicate that they will have a language translation to Japanese and "other" European languages, but what about currency conversion? Yes, VISA and MC will do the conversion, but will they convert the Euro-dollar and with the language translation are you provided with a currency translation so you know exactly in American dollars what you are paying versus the native currency you are buying in? I don't know. Finally, as Mr. Skinner pointed out...."we are starting March 1st where they are starting sometime in June. The store fronts will be over 30 to open with more being added every week with a max of 1000. I am sure they and we will open other sites to handle more and more stores." I think this is a very astute statement from our CEO. Basically the way I interpret this statement is....Well good for INKT, we are three (3) months ahead of them, and beyond that we realize that just as Wal-Mart is not the only brick and mortar retailer, we will not be the only entity processing transactions for e-tailers, however we have positioned ourself in such a manner as to hopefully become to on-line processing what Wal-Mart is to brick and mortar retailing! Best Wishes, Swedelo