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Whether Brian has done a good job will not be known for years. Integrations do take time. They can not just be bolted on. We have to believe that these integrations once integrated will work. Otherwise sell out now. As for return to shareholders. If that had been done we would probably have been bankrupt now. At least its given the company the opportunity to turnaround. The question is will the hopefully leaner meaner integrated company be an attractive proposition for advertisers. Virtually every site I go to has advertising. We need to get a bigger percentage of that.
What would you have done differently? used the money to roll out 1R a lot quicker and go for a land grap in the market place as the money is doing FA in the back PS. as for the money in the back what interest rate do we get on it as Wonga,com get 1,509% on there's
According to BM we've had a 'Transformational Year' every year for the last 3 years! Sometimes you have to stop blaming the 'industry' for your lackluster performance and take responsibility. I for one am already tired of his mantras. You don't hear Tim Armstrong (CEO of AOL) moaning that the industry around him is changing - No - He gets on with adapting to the changes in a timely manner - He's dynamic - He see's the changes coming down the pipeline and he positions his company accordingly - BM is an 'after the event' guy. He's just not cut out for CEO IMO.
To be frank, i would not knowingly have engaged in "bot clicking" using discredited ex Zango assets. That appears to be what brought down the business ... and perhaps it's fair to say that Brian was not the instigator of that fiasco. What to do. They could have liquidated the assets and returned the cash to shareholders. Rhythm Media was acquired at £40m, for example, so would have generated some cash. Or sought a tie up with another company in the industry for scale, but that's more of a gamble. What they are currently doing might work, I honestly have no idea, but their track record on acquisitions is not particularly good, so I would be wary. Good luck. I've dipped my toes in the Blinkx water several times, but at the moment I can't apply a suitable probability to their chance of success, so I am not tempted.
Fair enough alex1621. Of course the future is unknown and only time will tell... But for all those who criticise BM, what else could he have done? Change was needed. He was put in charge. Yes, there was cash in the kitty - but not compeltely straight forward to know how to use it. Short of drawing stumps and giving cash back to shareholders, he had to do something. So he embarked on trying to create a workable beast in this fast developing new arena. He bought suitable companies. Attracted good talent. Focused with a clear plan. Got rid of the dross. Now that everything is put together as best as possible and it is time to see if it will deliver. Personally I commend the effort. Yes, he has got paid for it. But who would do that for free? And no one will care a hoot about how much he got paid if he delivers. You pays peanuts... you gets monkeys. What would you have done differently? (And not using the benefit of hindsight).
No disrespect intended, but that article would be suitable material for a game of 'bull**** bingo'. Brian's saving grace is that Blinkx raised a great deal of institutional money prior to the hedge shorting attack and subsequent share price collapse. Without that cash, Blinkx would be effectively bankrupt. I have no idea whether the actions of this team will result in a growing and profitable business ... and I'd be suspicious of anyone who is certain they will ... at this stage it is simply unknowable.
Even in the cold light of day (without 4 pints and a bottle of wine!) BM is sounding VERY good. Exciting stuff. The ducks have been lined up. Time to deliver. I agree with the earlier comment that 2015 may have been the year for R1 accountants to use a big broom to sweep away as much of the past as possilbe and to start out with a clean (and profitable) 2016. These things do not happen over night. They require clear dedicated planning. I belive BM has been working hard to get this in place. Let him now deliver. http://www.cmo.com/articles/2016/3/15/full-stack-integration-for-the-win.html
I was going to write a rather detailed post but I went to the pub instead. That said, a few thoughts. Bm blog on the CMO link made better reading than the TU. Strange timing to post on the same day. Cash has stayed level, maybe even a tad higher over the past 6 months. Not to put in place a token share buy back with $/£ 1.41 and a 18p SP is a big miss. We have just added $75 M in new business in what has been described as a start up year. Hard to imagine doing anything less in a year when the whole engine is built and working from day one. i.e.April onwards. Results and AGM brought forward. Company keen to say something positive?
Is he still telling everyone on iii how good he is and how he knows everything about everything? The plep can't even read a balance sheet.
You may be right, there may well be a streamlined and ultimately (dare I say it) profitable business under what has become the reconditioned Blinkx. The business clearly needed to be changed and it's a good job the changes have finally come and have been quite dramatic in scope (although why some kid themselves and refer to this as a start up when we're 9 long years in is beyond any sort of accurate analogy for me). The change has been slow to realise and BM as the man in charge was caught napping. It was during his watch that the 3 year collapse ensued. He may have fixed it now (who knows - time will ultimately tell), but someone more dynamic would have reacted quicker and with more force. The way he reacted to the paid short was amateurish and he's always awash with bungling management buzz speak whenever presenting or issuing statements - Bungling his way through statements that need to be clear, concise, considered and detailed - he offers none of these qualities. I would like to see someone quite dynamic (who can talk with a straight mouth) come in and take over from here on out. Hi to gdog, becky, bmac etc
As below. Why on the blog has it not been updated for more than a year. Doesnt exactly inspire confidence. What is happening. Please reply. Doesnt exactly inspire confidence but what does now. 1 step bloody forward 2 steps back. Will advise if any reply.
Does anyone have info on what AdKarma is doing? ADkarma's blog is last dated 4/6/15. That is one year and a day since it was last updated ! Atrocious. No jobs open ! Is AdKarma alive?
Pensioner will no doubt be telling us that BM's doing a wonderful job, just like he has been for the last 2 years, during which time we've seen the share value collapse to its current level. Still, I'm sure BM's doing well out of it all. Me. I wouldn't hire him to tend my toilet.
That's the way I am reading it, and although work in finances and know a bit about accounts I am not an accountant. I would suggest that if this company "really believes" that it has had a proper inflection point and it is making real rather than monopoly money then it would want the biggest broom possible to get rid of all of the crap and dead wood now. For that reason I still have hope. Perhaps Breian is a bit more intelligent than some on here give him credit for. Or perhaps I am just stupid. Time will tell. The jury is well and truly out.
No doubt, restructuring costs can drag on. The 4m restructuring charge mentioned would still have to be paid for this financial year though, surely? So, stripping out the one off restructuring charge - Blinkx would actually be in operational cash profit for H2.
Come on Horsey. You have to agree they are very good at spending money. Good job they raised all that money in the placing. Maybe they can give us some more crap in the future to get to £2 plus to raise some more. They are good as a chocolate fireguard. Although maybe not that good as at least you could eat the chocolate. Pensioner will be on later to tell us how good they are doing. Then maybe sobeit will give us a guest appearance. And to cap it all still waiting for Pinkers and his post and just to cap it all off a pig might fly.
This is supposed to be a growing market place, but somehow Blinkx has managed not to grow, and even managed to mess up the additional revenue from all the purchases it has made at great expense over the years. To me , its just fanciful to think that they are going to succeed , after showing nothing other than the ability to spend money unwisely.
Restructuring costs reduced from revenues ?? Restructuring costs are normally totally separate as an exceptional item. ?? So although an effect of restructuring could affect revenues it would not always be so. Closing branches might mean everything is being done from the other buildings they inhabit or inherited from the numerous pirchases. Don't know how restructuring costs could ever be taken from revenues. Restructuring costs could be anything from redundancies to paying up leases etc.
I agree on the AdKarma $5m, I would expect that to have been a cash outflow in the last fiscal year. The $4m restructuring cost is more uncertain though. That is the estimated cost I think, and when the cash disappears depends on what the costs are, when people leave etc. For example, if you look at Quantcast, they appear to have shut down the first RhythmOne Premium segment (Giant Realm, MomIQ etc) from 31st March. If that really reflects closing down the business around that date, then redundancy payments would probably not be made until this financial year. Equally office closure costs may drag on into this year. You may also have a working capital cash benefit as the business shrinks i.e. some of the relatively good cashflow performance may be due simply to being owed less money by customers because you're doing less business with them.
Restructuring costs are usually deducted from revenues. So, this would have made H2 revenues appear smaller.
and what about $4mil cost cutting payment where did that go or come from?
Dallo, makes a good observation on iii regarding cash outflow for H2 2016. Following Blinkx's acquisition of AdKarma in December 2014 for $20m of which $15m was upfront and $5m to be paid on the 1st anniversary of the deal ( December 2015) in cash or shares, I am assuming that the $5m has been paid in cash as no RNS was issued regarding issue of new shares. Indeed if Blinkx had to paid $ 5m in shares now it would represent 4.5% of the shares in issue based on a current market cap of £77m. So we assumed Blinkx paid the $5m in cash in December 2015. Accordingly we can do the sums as follows $m Cash at 30th September 2015 82.34 AdKarma payment ( 5.00) Cash outflow from operations ( 1.34) ________ Cash at 31st March 2015 76.00 _________ So if I am doing the sums correctly we only had an operational cash outflow of $ 1.34m in the 6 months to 31st March 2015 . Am I missing something?
The company has already advised that they have closed numerous offices and reduced staff. These measures alone would lead to big cost savings. Lets hope that in 12 months time we are not asking the same questions. Brian really needs to be taken to task at the agm. Hopefully R.G and Tosca are the people to do that. Then again ( hopefully ) real profits. I have posted numerously on here on the companies ability to buy profitable companies and still not make a profit overall. Perhaps, and I do say perhaps, maybe they are clearing the decks of all the crap ready to make real profit.
Harry I'm in the same place as you. 40m is by all accounts a VERY impressive figure. The two concerns I have are: 1) It is hard to make cuts but even harder to make them stick. As the focus moves away human nature allows complacency and costs sneak back in. Hopefully Uncle Tosca will keep up the pressure. 2) There is a world of difference between cost 'saving' and cost 'avoidance'. Management are often guilty of mixing up the two of them and 'avoidance' means that you don't see the benefit on the bottom line but merely protects you from the situation getting worse. So, are there really 40m of savings? That said, even if 20m bottom line comes through it's not bad...
I will second Boffin's remark about the engine under the blinkx bonnet and would add that with all the gutting and trimming that’s been done, that engine now appears to be running a lean machine. In seeking an answer as to why the H2 revenues disappointed against what appear to be (reasonably) impressive Comscore and Quancast scoring, it appears to me that what is lacking now is SCALE. I doubt that I am alone in this assessment, Mr Tosca included. We can buy it (at a cost), we can attempt to grow it (that will take some time) or we can shoe-horn it in via a merger of equals (or better). I’d prefer the latter and I think that this is the next probable move for blinkx. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you see it), with the hard work done I think we are more vulnerable than ever to an opportunistic take out attempt. That may come at any time. Bmac.