RE: If's and but's. Stop it. RNS wait!9 Jul 2018 11:03
Invest4theLT,
What we must understand and acknowledge is that Eric really, really, really didn't want this to happen and this is most probably a real ball ache for him. Eric has a medium to long term strategy, which on the face of its appears credible, to grow the company. However, what has happened through lack of hindsight, taking too many liberties, disrespecting his shareholders, making too many assumptions and running out of money fast through poor decision making and failed strategies, the share price has dropped-off to very low levels. As a conseuquence of this, he has made the company vulnerable to hostile takeover and the would-be buyer has probably taken advantage of this down time to accumulate shares on the open market in sizeable chunks. I suspect that the accumulation began a while ago and has steadily increased as the share price has dropped and dropped.
So what we are seeing now is Eric et al pushed up against a corner, trying to fight their way out but not having enough in their armoury to mount a credible defense. That is why I believe the hostile takeover is very, very close. It's about the timing of the takeover now. At the very least, a negotiated JV would appear likely.
I am wondering if Tencent made an offer earlier in the year and it was snubbed by Eric. Tencent may have then gone about accumulating shares on the open market in attempt to get enough in order to mount a hostile takeover bid. A JV may have even been snubbed i.e. a non aggressive partnership and perhaps when even this was rejected, Tencent were offended and all talks ceased, which was supported by a recent RNS.
However, I'd love to hear from people who think that a takeover / JV is NOT going to happen. What are your views to support this?