Nice part 223 Aug 2019 16:46
MXCP sold their stake in CST and made a ****ing fortune as did I.(I sold long before this stage)
Smith had been going at it non stop on projects for about 5yrs so took a sabbatical.
In the USA as it happens but shhhhhhh I found that out by accident but it was very fortuitous later for me as it turned out.
While the cat was away Gavin COMPLETELY USELESS ****** Lyons completely and utterly ****ING DESTROYED CORTEX.
It was that prick that chose the stupid ****ing name for example that already belonged to another IT company who sued and won a fortune from CORTEX/IDE
He also tied Cortex to several utterly lunatic contracts which cost Cortex/IDE MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF CASH ****ED AWAY OK.
The outcome of this was that Cortex was forced by the courts to change its name so it became IDE.
The shares collapsed from a starting point of 30p to a low of .003 ish.
Meantime not only was Smiths eyes off the ball but he was deeply involved (unknown to us at the time)pulling together one of the most spectacular deals ever seen by an AIM minnow.(more of that later as it could have a lot of relevance here)
However, as the disaster of newly named IDE evolved he had no choice but to step back in.
Mxcp had cornerstoned Cortex/IDE and had tens of millions invested.
What he found was staggering in its awfulness.
Smith is a tough guy he is known as the hardest man in the biz for doing a deal
He is a tough cookie.
What he found at IDE made him cry.
So Gavin "USELESS ****" Lyons got booted into orbit step 1.
Then Smith set about the books HIMSELF IN PERSON and tried to sort out the shambles.
I asked Smith many times why he didn't just bin the entire company.
His reply was because there is an underlying business thats worth saving.
Ian Smith you must understand is the sort of man who would buy a pencil in 1983
and still be using that same pencil in 2019 even though it is down to just 1cm long.
You can read Smiths response to what he found in his first RNS after taking control of IDE as CEO himself.
It was an astonishing RNS where he didn't hold back his disgust at how badly run IDE had been and what an utter mess it was in.
He got in touch with an old mate.
Andy Parker was the BOSS of Capita he helped build it up with founder Martin Bolland into one of the biggest companies in the UK with a value of over 9 Billion and a FTSE 100 listing.
He is one of the top 100 directors in the UK.
He RAN Capita, however, he also had his troubles at Capita after it overreached itself but the fact is he built it up from nothing to the Behemoth it is today.
He got Max Royde back on the board and they started to sort IDE out.
They kitchen sinked tens of millions of **** contracts and office rental agreements.
They sold a large part of the company.
They slashed costs.
And finally..........they set IDE onto a debt free firm footing supported financially to the hilt by MXCP and Kestrel and Bill Dobbie (although Dobbie got the boot from the bo