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Gold/Mining/Energy : Cybersurf (CY.A) - Bridge between 20th & 21st Centuries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: (No name provided) who wrote (804)	3/7/1999 11:27:00 PM
From: Robert F	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3243

I return from a trip and what do I find? A passionate (way too passionate) post defending your friend's honor. Unfortunately, COZACD, there seem to be many more mixed feelings in your post than facts! Therefore, I will respond to some of your post but I do not believe anything I say will have an impact on you. You are obviously too passionately involved to see the negative effect that having the wrong person running a company can have on that company's progress. From a shareholder's point of view, while Mercia may be a swell guy, our only question has to be "As a president, is Mercia helping the stock price or hurting the stock price? In other words, Is he a good President?” Let's look at the facts. FACT 1: IN MY OPINION A PRESIDENT SHOULD BE A GOOD PUBLIC SPEAKER, A MOTIVATOR. First, that was a nice attempt to discredit me on this thread. You wrote: “I wonder why you keep suggesting that you felt that Mercia's presentation (at the IMAX) in particular was poor? Especially coming from someone who wasn't there!” I never said I was at the IMAX presentation. The opinions I have regarding Mercia's poor public speaking abilities comes from a presentation I attended at CFCN Studios as well as from what I have heard others say! At the presentation I attended Gonzo was great, Mercia was flat and out of place and looked way in over his head. Most of his sentences were incomplete and I got the impression that, like someone who is lacking sleep, he had had this conversation so often before that he wasn't sure if he had already made the point he wanted to or not while he was speaking. I hung around after the presentation with people from several companies that were invited to the presentation to purchase ad space. All expressed the same sort of opinion. To my knowledge, five months later, none of these companies have purchased ad space on 3web. Is this because of Mercia's weak presentation skills? I don't know. For the record, I did ask my friend (who works at MetroNet and was at the IMAX presentation) what he thought of the presentation at the IMAX theatre. I did not think it was fair to post his very negative reply at that time because I had not seen Mercia myself. It seems that Metronet and Mercia have a history of some sort, and frankly, this person (lets call him Andy) and most of the company according to Andy, has a very low opinion of Mercia. Andy's comments range from “no business brain” to “only tie he has is a Spiderman tie!” to “not even a real smart techy.” I think his point is that at Metronet, in Andy's opinion, Mercia is not perceived as a businessperson. You may be ready to respond passionately again with a post defending your “man's honor” and accusing me of not being fair because all I am providing is my opinion and third party opinions. Therefore, let's not judge Mercia only on what I have seen, or what I have heard. Let's go right to the source. FACT 2: IMO A PRESIDENT SHOULD BE FOCUSED AND QUICK ON HIS FEET Mercia is the president of a company that (as far as I can tell) wants to give away free internet access to consumers and sell ad space to businesses wanting to reach these consumers. It would seem that the trick is to get as many consumers on the system as possible so that more advertisers would want to buy the ad space. It would also seem that UNIVERSITY STUDENTS would be a perfect fit - they need free access and they are a great consumer group for advertisers. If Mercia is a great president (like you say) why does a major article in the major newspaper in Calgary have the quote from him "We never thought of targeting schools. It just wasn't an area we had thought of." (http://www.cia.com/herald_article2.html). Someone not in over his head would have responded in a completely different and more professional manner. FACT 3: IMO A PRESIDENT SHOULD BE ABLE TO DETERMINE GOOD PRESS FROM BAD If he is quick, and we are supposed to feel like the ship is in good hands, why did the President of a company put out (or allow to be put out) a press release restating an article that appeared in Canadian Business called “IS THIS WHAT THEY CALL AD NAUSEUM?” Does the title itself not suggest to you that the author is not impressed? (http://canbus.com/archives/08289805.htm) If the title did not alert a professional to this opinion, the subtitle would have: “In Calgary you can now surf the Internet for free. You just have to be prepared to watch commercials – constantly” Yet there is a press release from the company as if this is a good article that every shareholder should read. And CY has it up on their web site just to make sure no one misses it. (I'm almost certain it won't be there by later tonight!) FACT 4: THE MARKET KNOWS AND ADJUSTS THE SHARE PRICE ACCORDINGLY If it has not been obvious in my earlier posts, than I will state clearly for the record, I believe having a weak president running CY is contributing to the lack of success I am seeing reflected in the stock price. I do not operate in a bubble here in Calgary. I listen to a lot of brokers and investors and business people. I hear the same thing over and over. I have consistently tried to identify for those not from Calgary the very positive parts of CY. They have a good technical reputation, the 3web software is interesting, the design is professional, and some of the latest financial stuff (Hammett's work) is top notch. I believe that, if they get a lucky break and are “discovered” this software will go national. But the president may be getting in the way of that break. This is not a personal attack as you have suggested - it is factual. I have presented four points of fact. Please do not respond with another personal “love letter” or with reasons and excuses from the past why CY is where it is today. In case you haven't figured it out from your reading over the last few months, most of us are interested in the PERFORMANCE, TODAY and TOMORROW of a stock in a company that we like. We don't care about yesterday, and we don't care how great a friend the guy is. If he is not a strong president, he COULD be hurting the company more than he is helping it. I don't mean fire Mercia or send him packing. I mean get someone in that high profile position who can do the job, who has the ability to speak publicly, who can think on his feet, who can handle the press a little better, and who the brokers and the market like. COZACD, you ended your post with “Robert” (btw my first name is Robert and my middle name is Frank), I'm really disappointed in your characterization of Paul. I don't think you've actually seen him in action because your comments are unfair and - more importantly - simply not accurate. Paul has certainly proven to me that, with CY under his direction, 3web will be a success across Canada.” It is sad COZACD because I do not believe you will appreciate the fact that Mercia just may not be president material. This is not a personal attack JUST BASED ON THE FACTS. I do not believe you will see that it may be because of him that the company struggles to get even close to 40 cents. But many others do. I suppose you could continue to say that I have a personal problem with Mercia. But nothing I have provided here is personal. It is all factual. Maybe in your next post you can provide some opinions backed up with FACTS that would change my mind and the minds of all the people who are reading this thread. While I wait for your FACTUAL reply I have a little more research to do. I had a few personal emails in my inbox that have been sent by others who read this thread and wondered why I have not replied to your post. A couple look real interesting. One about overstated qualifications in the latest documents mailed out to shareholders, another about a post on another thread with the “truth” behind the “fired” president. Finally, I have a few questions about the patented technology that CY was supposed to have gone public on, Mercia's Virtual T1, and how it relates to a software I work with called Citrix. However, these posts will have to wait for another day.