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Why are people not questioning the fact NM Inc were setup only a month ago? This company has no background, experience or credibility to drive things forward. It has one sole director that noone really knows anything about. It stinks to a new level where I'm under the impression it has just been setup to enable consolidation to enable many more rounds of fundraising and dilution. NM Inc are aiming to raise $50m immediately after consolidation.....even that won't be enough to compete. Just feels like a new PI trap to me. Same horse with a different jockey.....it's just a shame that horse is dead!
At least the CLNs are over.
Simon Cole, has got some balls coming out with that statement:
"It is only appropriate that we seek to properly incentivise our management team in advance of both the launch of our new music platform and the strategy to secure a listing in the US. This step aligns management's interests with those of our shareholders and ensures appropriate focus on the creation of long-term equity value".
Wonder what targets are going to be set for a nil exercise price.
Maybe after this, more people will learn to respect the need for balanced perspective and critical thinking in forums. Posters like Londondan, Katstrangler, Rikki, Rumfuddle and even Horse get harpooned with criticism for calling it like it is. Rampy, speculative Telegram echo chambers are the real danger to LTH! Stay alert.....always! Crazy ride with this one.
"As an example just 2% equates to 10m subscribers giving a revenue of $1 billion."
The problem is Albert, people underestimate how incredibly difficult it is to gain a 1% market share in a saturated, competitive market, let alone 2%. It's easy to say throwaway comments like Napster "just" need to add a few million users to deliver 9 figure revenues. The reality is that the business has been in YoY decline for several years. The brand name is tarnished. They are now competing with dozens of reputable competitors with deeper pockets, their marketing strategy has so far been abysmal and they lack the leadership experience to counter the collective intelligence of bigger corporations (who employ super smart people without a superiority complex). Whilst the idea of doing so is not impossible, it will take years and years to achieve. Napster group are in a dog fight. Will the level of disruption be enough to entice people to break away from their existing subscriptions with other platforms? How will rivals react to the app release?
It's great to have optimism, but at some point, a reality check is needed where facts have to be taken into consideration. Napster's altman-z score is shocking and we're all in the **** if they can't turn that around.
Good long term potential, but nothing to write home about in the short-mid term.
That's definitely a link to the old project. Think it was either 2014 or 2016
So much irony in the name....
The short term reality is that Napster Group have claimed they will run out of cash around May 2022. Profitability is negligible and a large future fundraise/cash injection is inevitable to keep them afloat. They cannot afford to compete or invest in any level of long term aggressive marketing with their existing budget. I recall something along the lines of £10m in the admission doc. If that is still true, it's a drop in the ocean. Even if they purely focus all of their efforts on customer acquisition in cheaper new territories, they will likely be constrained by a lack of content that appeals to customers within those regions....take Asia or South America as an example which will require heavier investment into partnerships, artists and licenses again. That's assuming they also face no further competitive barriers along the way which is highly unlikely when Spotify are also focusing on territory expansion.
It's a bargain basement price for a reason. Smart decisions need to be made if this company is to survive (let alone thrive). It feels to me that the current leadership team are poorly equipped to balance the short term needs of the business against the long term aspirations of what they want to deliver. PI's are going to face another challenging couple of years in my opinion. I don't see how Matchett is going to catapult the business out of financial stress any time soon.
Matchett is not a marketeer. Han**** seemingly has failed businesses against his name. Neither really appear to trust their team enough to allow them to get creative with campaigns. Both arguably have delusions of grandeur.
I hope for all our sakes we get a decent opportunity to exit. The task ahead is huge. I also hope I'm going to be forced to eat my words here, but I believe right now that Matchett and Han**** are basically preparing the group to hike up Everest, completely naked.
"Feels like I’m gonna end up floating in the shark infested waters of the North Atlantic on a piano lid."
That's what can happen when your captain takes you off course to a red ocean environment in a beat up dinghy with limited supplies! On the bright side, at least you won't die alone!
Let's hope Matchett's puncture repair kit can get us to land.
Such a sorry state of affairs! The share price would probably treble with a decent CEO coming in to the business right now.
2022 looks likely to bring more death spiral finance, significant dilution, a consolidation and then another hammering on the US stock exchange. People buzzing about a US listing need to give their heads a wobble. It will get smashed unless the masses take pity on Napster by making it a meme stock. I'm not prepared to put all my eggs in that basket.
Lineup announced tonight on Twitter / Zapp app for this weekend. Looks like we may have dodged a bullet this year. Fan sentiment not great so far with artists backing out. People already mocking the event, suggesting refunds.
Seriously cannot take any more infantile "Choo Choo" comments. Filter bin for Croydon!
Out of curiosity, what were the questions that they half-heartedly responded to?
Any positive new news would be welcome right now to kick start the upward movement again, but the best news would be a quick completion of the CLN process this month. Having that hanging over everyone's head is comparable to wading through quicksand.
Fingers crossed!
Croydon - just to add my two cents on that too, the limited positive news you often refer to and overall lack of activity so far in 2021 have not been enough to keep the share price buoyant. LTH now have to bag or multibag to break even and there's still uncertainty over the likelihood of further declines whilst more CLN's are pending....and now more recently with the looming threat of another £18m round of massive dilution on the cards if resolutions are approved at next week's AGM and new fundraising decisions are made quickly thereafter. It's not difficult to see why sentiment (for some) may appear less optimistic going into 2022. Who's to say any gains in the s/p from the new app won't be quickly cannibalised by another large fundraise? Or to flip that, if the fundraise comes first and s/p drops well below 1p, any gains from the new app could be capped below 2p or 3p, still below many LTH weighted averages.
The new app needs to be killer to get the business in a stronger position to fight for its survival - Mark Kortekaas does seem to have a solid reputation though as CTO, coming from MIT and working in complex media projects, so that's a plus. People possibly seem less hopeful as many have experienced a reality check this year. If the app is not up to the expectations of consumers and if the inexperienced AM/SH mismanage the marketing there is quite frankly nowhere else to hide. The only other thing I feel Napster may have in the locker to keep investors onside at some level is the rollout VR theatre experiences.
Had the share price not been trashed to the level it was after the RTO, there would be stronger grounds for optimism amongst more PI's I'm sure . All we can do is remain hopeful that Matchett takes this new business seriously, makes correct decisions on behalf of ALL shareholders and remember that it is not a crime to ask questions, discuss doubts and change perception as dynamic business conditions evolve with time. Remaining eternally positive and blind to the risks is dangerous.
Let's not forget, it's not the same business most of us originally invested in. What started out as a new, innovative company with solid entry barriers in a blue ocean VR environment has now turned into a reputationally tarnished, declining company trying to disrupt a saturated, competitive, red ocean streaming environment with some big names and even bigger pockets.
Time will tell if it's a risk that will pay off.
Agree with both of your responses. It's about choosing where we challenge and I think this topic raises a fair and big enough question for us to expect a reasonable answer - either directly through the AGM or via a written response.
Hi DJP,
You're very welcome to disagree in your opinion. I believe there are significant risks that need to be explored with deeper questioning. Not much more to say really. I don't believe any facts have been stretched whatsoever in expressing a concern. As for previous Zoom attendance, let's not ignore the fact they wouldn't let many of us into the previous AGM call having waited patiently. It's never been as easy as you seem to express....arguably selective if you look at what happened last time.
Do you know why £18m is needed for the next stage of 'progress'? Me neither. Hence the need for greater transparency and caution before making blind decisions on such a high level of dilution.
I'm not against future find raises, but there are certain things that don't sit right with me at this particular point in time.
All the best!
Resolutions here for those who haven't seen it:
https://napster.group/public-documents/
I expect some will turn a blind eye to it and accept it as part of the continued 'build' process but I'm more sceptical this time around. If I'm reading that right, they need approval to issue more shares up to the value of £18m which is around half of the MCAP (or an extra 1.4bn shares at the current price of 1.3p - which will probably go lower again for the placing). Can't say I'm best pleased at management's desire for more placings and mega dilution. Takes the **** again after the business claims to be suitably funded with a further option to draw support from a loan facility. Also feel it's a little premature without being able to better demonstrate the value of a new platform. However, it was hinted as a possibility in the admission doc given their use of ambiguous language on what may come after the initial budget was consumed.
I personally feel a vote should be delayed on resolutions 10 and 11 until next summer after more platform info is released. There should be more upfront accountability from Napster Directors on why that level of funding is needed and how the money will be spent. It also implies new shares will be offered to shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings, meaning the big guns will be prioritised, getting an even bigger slice of the pie, pushing PIs further down the pecking order.
I definitely have some concerns. If they can provide transparency with guarantees on a productive intended use of extra funds, it could be an easier pill to swallow but it seems to be shaping up in support of Horse's idea that this is the start of a strategy to get more PI's out of the picture. The timing and phrasing of those resolutions have been cleverly positioned to put 50%+ more shares in the hands of big players.
PI's are possibly going to put themselves to the sword without realising if those in attendance vote in favour of this without probing deeper into the reasons. Not to mention that Directors are trying to make it as difficult as possible for shareholders to attend anyway with evidence of both a negative PCR test and proof of double vaccination being required. Huge indoor events don't even face those levels of safety protocols.
Questions need to be asked. I feel it would be risky for PI's to just accept this without thinking about the longer term impact that it could have, especially if we don't get the same opportunities to subscribe and benefit from cheaper placing prices.
As much as I respect your enthusiasm Croydon, those positions appear to be 5-6 weeks old, dated 15th June when s/p was 1.97p. Assuming insider numbers have remained relatively stable, we've had ~350 million reported trades since then so it would be interesting to see what the latest institution data looks like after the s/p dropped by 40% to lows of 1.15 a few days back. All of those green changes could just as easily have been temporary based on a dip below 2p, swallowed back up into red sell off territory as heavier price erosion set in.
My concern is that it seems easy to glorify those positions if one doesn't consider the most recent information. Is this information available with yesterday's timestamp so PIs can better assess change? Something more up to date would probably provide greater confidence in what you have to say.
Bang on Mel! Continued false promises, poor communication and general below par execution are only going to get Matchett and Han**** so far before sentiment permanently changes. Well within your right to have a less positive outlook. I'm also in the 'more than mildly concerned' camp. I suspect AM will see through the app launch but this company really needs to do the right thing by appointing an experienced CEO to drive growth in 2022. I don't believe either AM or SH have the skills, background or influence to elevate the new platform. For me and irrespective of the s/p, the best thing they could both do is step aside, sit on a large chunk of shares and let the right people rebuild the business. At least that will give Napster the best fighting chance of trying to gain share from other more established platforms. As for Cole, he seems invisible and about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Would be good to learn more about what he actually brings to the table.