Friday, October 26, 2007

Joke of the Day: In the Best Interest of the Investors

So....yeah....this one is for SLRisk....I am sorry but I gotta do it. Realize it is nothing personal at all. I admire the effort but the recent action is deplorable. In the best interest of investors??? Hmmm, were the investors consulted??? Was there a shareholders meeting that I didn't hear about? I am usually in the know on a lot of things but I guess I missed out.

Publicly listed companies kill me with this fable of a line "in the best interest of investors" when they didn't even bother talking to the investors in most cases. If I am wrong here, feel free to correct me. I am woman enough to admit wrong but I think this is a result of Jon Desmoulins giving a strong sell rating and according to the announcement here (https://www.wselive.com/research/announcement_detail/2794) it was.

First of all, I agree with Jon's analysis. I think CEO's are expecting the analysis to be bare numbers and nothing more. BAH! That's just a financial statement. To come to a conclusion on the analysis, you have to give you opinion based on what you see so.....yes, it is partly opinion. Are we not adult enough to realize that? Pardon the smugness of this blog...I am quite pissed about this. Too many times we see things done "in the best interest of the investors" and then we have something like a "Jasper Tizzy" happen or a "Ginko Perpetuating that these are Bonds" happen.

WHAT A JOKE! Stop saying you are doing things "in the name of investors" when all it boils down to is that your ego isn't getting stoked and you want to fly the coop. Show me a log of an investor meeting were you consult investors and I will gladly shut the hell up. This is the reason WSE has the resolution portal. This is the reason I post polls on my blog. This is the reason CEOs start threads to ask questions. If you haven't done this, it was not "in the name of the investors." It was because you got pissy, folded you arms, and said "I don't want to play with Luke anymore. I'm leaving to go play with Intlibber."

Come on, nothing wrong with leaving if you really want to leave but seriously, CEOs are jumping exchanges like frogs on lily pads and it is horrible. How many times did Jasper Tizzy jump? Intlibber Brautigan? Well wait....he got put out of the sandbox but no one let him play in theirs so he bought pretty much stolen technology from a known con artist and opened his exchange with AVIX information still on the pages.....Great....

Let me step off this damn soapbox before I break a heel.....

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm a RIS shareholder, and apart from the announcement that they would move I saw nothing from them.

I've expressed my concerns about exchange hopping before so I won't go into them again, but if someone is looking to buy my shares of RIS at ACE, they're welcome. They'll be for sale soon.

Lindsay Druart said...

And there you have it. A RIS shareholder.....and this move was in the best interest of the investor???

Delicious Demar said...

I totally agree with you on this one L. I am sick of being told by CEO's of companies I have invested in, what my best interest is. I kinda know what my best interest is.. and they never asked me!

I have used that phrase a few times in announcements as well, but usually I try to use it in circumstances where I have made a deal that makes DDE more profitable or allows me to increase expansion, dividends, whatever. And I always ask investors before making any kind of serious move, like switching exchanges! (Which, for the record, DDE won't do - it's not in the best interests of my investors - rofl)

I took a look through RIS's financials, all their announcements, their website, and their dividend history. In a case like this, what else could Jon say?? The only thing i think he missed is that they have given regular dividends. I can't say I disagree with his analysis either - and there really aren't a lot of "numbers" he could have used to make a more quanititative analysis anyway.

Just to be clear, as a CEO, I am NOT expecting an analysis to be bare numbers and nothing more. As an investor, I can do that myself. But I do think that the right numbers are critically important, (if they exist)and at the very least can be used to support the analysts recommendations. And, if the numbers DON'T exist (like for many companies who have never posted any meaningful financial data), then to me that is a very daming comment on the company right there.

I have applied to be an analyst myself, and I hope to god that I am able to do more than spit back the bare numbers - the whole point of having analysts is to synthesize lots of information from different sources (qualitative and quantitative) to come to an informed opinion.

And yes, I am ready for the shizt to start flying when I give a company a poor review, and have the CEO post an announcement claiming that I am an incompetent, opinionated analyst that gor it totally wrong. Lindsay, you have full permission to smile REALLY intensely when that happens!

Del

Lindsay Druart said...

Exactly my point D and if you take a look at SIM from the analyst side you would see what I mean. But, you will get your hate mail too :)

Anonymous said...

Frankly just one glance at the SLRisk web site had been enough to not invest more than petty cash (also called gambling). A company that can't communicate and doesn't see why they might need the advice of a professional communications designer has a long rough road ahead.

Lindsay - sorry I had asked you to compare your company with theirs. You didn't answer. I take that as your analysis ;))

Luv Lykin

( a vice president in search of his missing CEO and money recently posted me a message telling me what my name might mean. Ha ha.. sorry if any one is offended by that red tongue sticking out! )

Mike Lorrey said...

For a woman who is in receipt of stolen sims, and was probably responsible for the 'fraud' of JC Brink, you have a lot of balls accusing someone else of stealing software they paid 1 million L$ for to the rightful owner, AND hired the developer to install (Tango11 Communications did the installation, ask them if the software was stolen).

Lindsay Druart said...

I never said you stole the software there Intlibber. I said Allen did. Read again dear. And your business with JC Brink is not my business. You have his contact information. You do what you need to do but don't come to my blog with your lip poked out trying to flame. That doesn't fly in these parts.

Anonymous said...

What is your point Lindsay?
Okay you obviously wrote a lot of text[read:lotsa word in subjective context sprinkled with incoherence].
And your obviously looking out for everybodies wellbeing by writing this[read:you need SLRisk to sink, cause else your ego will get hurt..or your wallet, whichever comes first.].
And there's no way in hell you would ever spread rumors or tell lies to reach that goal[read:Your system was 2nd, not 1st. And that it actually matters what stockmarket shares get traded on.]

Now that we've established your just as fundamentally untrustable as any other opinion.

SLRisk and a communications expert, and do what?
Dress up a site that was designed to be used by companies? Make 'user friendly' data that was ment to be raw unprejudiced data?
Or better yet, let them communicate with the people it is actually about so they can alter their actual data.

Read into it what you want, but a system where I can actually control what is being said about me is as reliable as my ability to lie, or Lindsay for that matter.
Not to mention lying influences people and especially stockprices.

And there we go again, that's what the entire post is about. Stocks, stockmarker and especially stock prices.
Cause in the end Lindsay all you want it yours to go up and SLRisks to go down.
Nobody likes competition, espacially sore losers.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, I have NEVER posted on any of these types of blogs as I am dismayed at how often they seem to be abused for market manipulation, EGO wars, ‘scare tactics’ and generally morally questionable, uneducated, unfounded comments which result in even more confusion for the generally uneducated (in financial matters) investors within SL.

However, that said, I do read many of such posts including yours and actually felt yours was not one of these types… I have always held a lot of respect for yourself and the individuals that respond to your posts (for example Delicious in this post. LOVE your move to survey investors first!). I was under the impression that those here were of my own opinion, in regard to all of the ridiculous ego contests and dribble that seems to be plaguing SL business lately!

So was surprised when I saw this post and was motivated to respond for 2 reasons…
Firstly, SLRisk has been a company I have been interested in (no I am not a shareholder or anything related to them) due to the fact that they do seriously seem to be attempting to reduce the risk to SL investors (Which I am sure we can all agree is surely a good thing?! And Lindsay… this is something you have always professed to support also??)
Secondly, I have also been very interested in your own project of ‘credit bureau’ LLCRA so my first thought is… “Oh god she feels SLRisk is competition and is trying to eliminate that?! Surely not, Lindsay has always appeared to be against such things and for healthy competition??” So I went out to find some more information, to see if this really was a founded rant (which although I don’t generally agree with anyhow, as I don’t like to see companies destroyed by such things, I DO believe that if they are based on facts and something that people should be informed on for their own protection then I can appreciate they are occasionally warranted)

So what did I find? Firstly that SLRisk DID have a shareholder meeting (although I wasn’t there I was able to get the transcript) and although I agree that more communication from the CEO was definitely needed BEFORE the move… the transcript shows a clear, understandable explanation for the move and I wholeheartedly agree with what the CEO said as to why the move was necessary and that it truly was in the shareholders best interest (as I am sure you will agree if you were at the meeting or read the transcript :)

Secondly, I had a look at that analyst report… and like you said… it doesn’t reflect the dividend for SLRisk. Surely this is what true share analysis should actually revolve around? SLRisk has posted regular dividends (which lets face it, many (no names ;) companies neglect to do). I do agree that analysts are entitled to their opinion and should be taken as just that, but neglecting to take into account something as basic as dividends, and posting it to the investing public, to me, cancels it from being a true analysis at all. So I can understand if the CEO was unhappy with this (I am sure all CEO’s would be!). BUT I also agree that the CEO seeming to imply in his announcement that the reason for the move was due to this analysis, is wrong. I think this was merely misunderstood and now knowing the true reason, I think the bottom on the CEO’s announcement alone would have been more appropriate ;-)

I truly hope Lindsay, that this wasn’t a scare tactic attempting to thwart the competition. Compete? Yes of course! But do it by promoting your own business and by performing well not by attempting to bring down others with scare tactics (Oh my dream for you all in SL!) Personally I choose to believe that you were just misinformed (although usually I hold respect for your research skills and you have always said you value basing things on the FACTS so maybe you are working too hard! I feel for you there and hope you can find some good staff (they must be SOMEWHERE in SL? Lol we can only hope  to ease the load soon if this was the reason.

This IS NOT a comment against you Lindsay or your site, I will still read avidly and still respect most your business etiquette I just felt that seeing the damage this could potentially cause SLRisk, (a company that is actually trying to reduce all the risk of people being scammed in SL which I am ALL FOR!) the facts were needed, I can see how it could have appeared to be another ego based decision and agree more communication was definitely needed. But the reasoning once investigated, I found very sound and ultimately, smart business.

Finally (I know it’s long!) I have posted under my real life name and understand I am opening myself to some heat (I know that nearly all ‘bloggers’ are often subject to some heat even if they speak no negative against anyone and are just trying to help ;-)
Lindsay, you and all those that comment on your site are most definitely entitled to your opinion, but please keep in mind that as a prominent and respected business woman in SL your words are often taken as absolute fact, so I hope you can understand why I felt the need to post this… Anyone can feel free to contact me at MelissaMartin66@yahoo.com regarding this is you would like to.

Thank you and happy Sling (if we could all just find where our shoes and hair GO TO all the time!) to all of you!

Lindsay Druart said...

Ok there are a few things to address here that may or may not be known.

First of all, the demise of SLRisk is NOT something I am aiming at here. I have talked with Travis Ristow before and we were looking at sharing information between the two systems and this is something that Mateo Infinity was working on as well.

Second, to clarify something about the system as well, information cannot be manipulated by the person the report is on. They can dispute information and there will be an investigation in which the provider and the avatar will get results.

Third, I have NEVER been afraid of a company who does the same thing I do. Second Life is way too big for one company to cover one aspect so if anyone wants a go, have at it. I am not mad at that. My motto has ALWAYS been, we are not the best solution for all but the best solution for some.

Fourth, I also said in my posting that if their was indeed a shareholder meeting, I stand corrected and since their was, again, I stand corrected.

Fifth, this was directed at SLRisk but I have seen more than SLRisk do this and I just think it's deplorable. I felt the same way when BNT, YEP, PSG, AVG, BOB, and a host of others did it. Sometimes I think CEO rely on business "feelings" rather than business objectivity.

If I have offended anyone, I sincerely apologize. I don't seek to destroy anyone but if one posting from me destroys your company then you may have to think about how solid your business was in the first place and that is just being realistic.

Also, for the anonymous poster, stand behind what you say and put your name on it. Most of the people in my blog do and I would appreciate the same. I have a good idea of who it is anyway.

So...again, SLRisk just happened to be the drop that spilled the cup for me that day. Nothing personal at all. I am an investor as well as a CEO so don't think that I shouldn't feel a certain way about something just because I run a business. I am a person before I was ever an entity.

In the end, there should be more than one "credit agency" to cover the millions of avatars we have. One company can't get all the business and a company that is attempting or promising to do so would probably be the SL Enron.

I am not concerned with the competition as a competitor. I am concerned with the companies as an investor because the screw ups of one company can make this all harder for all of us, investors and CEOs alike. I don't know about most but the sting of Ginko is still felt in some parts of the grid.

If no one understands how moves like this disrupt investor confidence then we are all sadly doomed to loose a ton in the end.

Anonymous said...

So in the end you say things, take them back, break them down a bit.
But most people don't read everything, so only the crap get's conveyed to the masses. Who by stastical definition do not think for themselves by the most part.
Always easy to score points if your blowing a really big horn.

PS:Nice bluff. But you have no idea who I am. And I'm in no mood to spoil it for you.Feel free to IM whoever you think it is in SL.

Lindsay Druart said...

How wonderful we are to talk so big behind the shield of anonymity. I have a pretty good idea who you are but the rant of some random boob who can't stand behind what they say doesn't matter much to me.

I have respect for people that will stand behind what they believe even when they disagree. Feel free to remain coward.

Anonymous said...

Excellent, so now we've established that you in theorie can never care about SL customers. Since most of them 'hide' behind their alias and therefore are all cowards.

So are you pro full real life data disclosure then?
Do you need to fully verify that a person really exists?
Or can you be content with and easy to manufacture lie that is called a name?

Lindsay Druart said...

Intriguing nonetheless but some form of reference is better than none. If you have something to discuss pertaining to this blog posting, feel free to continue but if you just want to flame me, at least put some form of reference to it so we all know who to ignore.