Member Info for getafgrip

NFY - Some sound observations on the energy markets. But, increasing Russian control of energy supply is only part of Putin's overall strategy. Putin has successfully won back control of Russia & has started to move on.

Putin wants a seat at the top table for both Russia and himself (not necessarily in that order) & if at all possible to control the dynamics of the table. He wants to build the new USSR. He wants to oppose the West at every opportunity. He wants to subvert the West in terms of its politics, institutions, cultures and philosophy etc. He wants his footnote in history to be changing the World Order not just influencing the energy markets.

The main point for me is that a company not making a profit is using borrowings to buy back its own shares, because this high growth company cannot come up with any more beneficial investment purpose! I find this really disconcerting.

https://www.shell.com/media/news-and-media-releases/2022/lng-industry-rebounds-in-2021-amid-supply-constraints-and-volatile-prices.html

https://www.shell.com/investors/information-for-shareholders/share-buybacks.html

Quite significant news really. Shell has changed it's buy-back broker from Banque BNP Paribas to Citigroup Global Markets Limited. There is a whole list of inferred reasons why Shell might have done this.

From the RNS for the 14th February, Shell has purchased 2,725,000 on the day. Under the current announced arrangement they have until the 4th May 2022 to purchase up to 622,094,828 shares. That gives them 11-weeks, generally containing 5- trading days & a current rate of purchase around 15 million shares/week. A resulting possibility of 165 million shares being purchased for cancellation, unless purchases are almost quadrupled from the present level!

It also explains statements that have been made to the effect that purchases may be made off-piste, i.e. the main exchanges, to hit ambitious targets. It is news that impacts all shareholders who consider the share price important to them.

Many of Darktraces 6500 customers, plus potential customers, may be impacted by war though, and spend less as a result. So the equation is not simple and straightforward.

I think Looney by name Loony by nature had also picked exactly the wrong time to sing the praises of oily cash machines. Especially when Shell had played their own results game very diplomatically & without creating too many waves.

Didn't someone say that a snake featured on some of the original Dark FT ads?

Maybe fish-oil! This is dated but well worth a read:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/darktrace-insider-threats-hackers-security

Anonymous contributor - If you think the shares are worth £7.00p today, I am happy to sell to you at this price! Either that or you are talking the usual load of blx!

Cac - Just so that you get up to speed at some point I was talking about Darktrace's in-house Science and Technology Committee. As Watchman states, only this morning, on the Darktrace.com website, ML was still 50% of it!

Effectively Darktrace distanced themselves from this aspect of the company linking to ML only this morning.

That's why Dark is down 60% from its high. If you conveniently ignore facts it does not mean that they do not exist.

Or you could look at Darktrace's website yesterday and he was still a member.

The Darktrace Science and Technology page has disappeared from the Darktrace website. Maybe it was looking like involving a soliloquy from Prof. Nick Jennings:

Replaced by a new Advisory Council - looks like ML is being air-brushed out:

https://www.darktrace.com/en/advisory-council/

N99 - Dead right. Eventually, this may end up looking more and more like a US state sponsored Cyber-Security Genius-napping. It is not unprecedented for companies to be taken over for their IP, unique product, or senior personnel alone.

Ultimately, if the US manage to import ML - will he rot in a US prison cell? It seems highly unlikely whilst plea bargaining is around. The US only has to do this for a few key Darktrace personnel & they will be able to form the equivalent of Darktrace Incorporated, without any formal takeover.

The links between Autonomy and Darktrace are irrefutable. Some investors on this Board need to pay a lot more than cursory attention to the facts as opposed to believing what it is comfortable for them to believe.

Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson, was formerly a senior lieutenant of Lynch's at Autonomy and this cannot be denied. As a high-flying accountant working to the jailed CFO and Director Shushovan Hussain, did she and other key players really have no idea about the inflation of Autonomy value at the time of the Hewlett Packard takeover. Of course she did:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/25/autonomy_whistleblowers/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48260772

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/13/ex-autonomy-cfo-sushovan-hussain-five-years-hewlett-packard

https://stockrow.com/symbol/RDS.B/ev

https://finbox.com/NYSE:RDS.B/explorer/total_enterprise_value

Please don't reply that he owns "Ordinary" shares so that he is an ordinary shareholder!

It is not irrelevant that ML is half of Dark's critically important Science and Technology Committee, which meets at Dark's Head Office and significantly influences company strategy. If Poppy, and other main board members, do not sit in on the meetings they should do, otherwise what is the purpose of Dark's most prestigious and influential committee!. With his wife, he owns 15.5% of Dark (for legal purposes they are likely to class the two shareholdings as one entity) & he is the founder and inspiration behind the company

.I am an ordinary shareholder and I am not on the S and C Committee, nor do I own a significant proportion of the Dark share capital, nor do I have frequent access to Board members.

How does this make him an "Ordinary" Shareholder?

Happy,

We obviously have differing views on this. But, you freely admit that you are someone who is very "Happy" with a calculation of Shell's capitalisation that is ERRONEOUS BY $5 BILLION & then fitting this ERROR into your pompous declarations of Shell's EV (And your calculations were based on a rising share price at the time).

At least you have had the decency to withdraw your assessments and "analysis" of Chevron and Exxon, as I have completely withdrawn my apology. This is because when you are pontificating to your appreciative audience the "******-Ometer" starts to smoke as it goes off the scale!

Happy,

Mark is right. I apologise if I have caused offence - I certainly should have expressed my views on this more sympathetically.