Well the writing was on the wall a long time ago. This week just sort of confirms a few things. For most of the 2017 year, many investors questioned what is exactly going on and if in fact if anything is going on. The answer that we all guessed or assumed was confirmed. Not a damn thing. So what exactly did MARA do for a year to justify pay raises, bonuses and overall increased compensations?
To make matters worse, the justification and explanations of the silence now does infact come across as a complete myth. Why do I say that? Well we have been told that many deals, terms, conversations are not allowed to be discussed due to agreements put in place. Well, this week we find out that they either declined every deal proposed to them, every deal they proposed was shot down or deals were more fables and stories. Which also means, Doug couldn’t put his ego aside and just simply close any deal. Think about that folks…. THE CEO COULDN’T CLOSE A DEAL. THINK AGAIN FOLKS A MILLION DOLLAR A YEAR PLUS, CEO COULD NOT CLOSE A SINGLE DEAL that was worth talking about or impact MARA "bigly"! And why no sense of urgency, well when you make a million a year, things are not so bad. We will never know and to be honest it does not matter. Mara, now needs a makeover, the company will forced to make sacrifices and in other words Doug now has to be something he is not. Doug now has to be something he has little experience in or atleast shown MARA shareholders that he can put the company first and his own personal gain last, and most important Doug must now become a fixer rather than a promoter. To make matters worse Doug now has to be likable, but you have be humble first, you have to be able to take criticism and control your temper… anyone wanna call for an Uber?
You see, Doug was and still is an excellent speaker/influencer in the patent space. But what is he selling now, what does he have… not much. His ability to excite a crowd and get people believing in assets he owned which at the time could of been monumental are no longer in his arsenal. Does anyone even trust his word? Does Doug even care? Doug has never been one about saving, building a foundation, laying blueprints to create a strong company. He has been the opposite, and found the supporting cast that mirror his business ethics and standards, goes back to that me first approach and the sense of feeling entitled. Again, if MARA fails DOUG will walk away from this as a millionaire. This was a mechanism, a tool to create personal wealth. I challenge anyone to show me a stock decline 97% in a calendar year, and in that same calendar year bonuses and salary increases were approved.
It goes back to what I have said so many times selfishness, little to no regards to shareholders. To add more salt to the shareholders wounds (since only the shareholders have them) MARA is not an example of a company that had no potential and failed, MARA is NOT an example of company that simply couldn’t get a fair shot. No no no, MARA is an example of what happens when a CEO and its board are selfish and greedy. Do I think Doug purposely failed as a CEO… ofcourse not. He was never a real CEO in the first place. A real CEO puts the company, its employees, and its shareholders first. No different as a husband who puts his wife and children before him. How strong of a family unit could you have, if the husband put his children and wife last? Well, it is no different when running a company. MARA historically, showed tremendous sings of progress and growth. However, that initial sign of growth was immediately picked off and not left to grow and sprout. He was always FIRST and never LAST and that is the opposite of a REAL CEO. And todays share price and company reorganization is a reflection of not 1 or 2 poor choices, but a continuation of poor choices that have shown very little signs of change or improvement. Now the company MUST change, when the company provided plenty of warning signs, alerts, wake up calls, heads ups prior.
What did he sacrifice as a CEO? I ask again, a CEO is about making sacrifices, WHAT DID HE SACRAFICE? Did he buy stock? Did he not get paid or put money on hold to ensure the financial strength of the company was monitored correctly? Not only was that not the case, his personal compensation only improved and grew as MARA Market Value continued to fail and fail and fail.
Previously I made a statement that I doubt if in fact MARA is working on MARA but working on POST MARA, and this seems to be the case. My concern is what patents do we have and what are we doing with them, are acquisitions on the horizon to now refill an empty pipeline of not patents, but to refill an empty pipeline of business. IP Services is a term being thrown around, what it, what is the relationship to MARA… Will the company now be transparent since they are not being held back or will it be crickets?
I want to add one last personal opinion here, anyone who knows Doug, anyone who has spoken to Doug, if anyone has met Doug most come with the same assumption of who he is. A boisterous, and believable individual who can eloquently tell the company story and excite a crowd. He made a believer out of me. This was honestly one of Doug’s most favorable business attributes but it started and stopped there. Even though he failed miserably as a CEO but personally won financially… fact is….does anyone believe that he can learn how to be humble, does anyone believe that he has the business acumen and attributes to salvage a company, he couldn’t win when he had real assets, how is he going to win with nothing, is this the person we want to rebuild with, does he deserve this opportunity? I have talked to him on several occasions, in one ear and out the other. I have tried for years to understand the silence, and then figure out the moves they made that only were the opposites of what was said. I have offered advice, suggestions all on deaf ears because again, he is winning even though MARA is losing.
But, Doug’s selfishness might be the only small glimmer of hope. And ironically Doug’s selfish, and ME first mentality might actually have a positive for shareholders. Let’s just hope Doug doesn’t realize that it might benefit shareholders otherwise he might change that as well. With Doug making a mill a year, and bonuses from MARA he will do whatever he can to save that compensation package. For this to happen, MARA must stay alive. Because, Doug knows he will never make this type of money elsewhere. At best he will be a COO making 175-225k a year and a bonus package purely incentive base and well… good luck with that. Who knows maybe he is working on his exit strategy, and that might be the best money MARA ever spends.
When I think of what MARA could have been, I compare it to the story of Len Bias. A talent rich organization with valuable gifts, only to be destroyed by selfish acts that leave destruction behind.
To summarize Doug and MARA I would compare it to a saying.
“When you are dead, you don’t know that you are dead. It’s only painful and difficult for the others. It is the same when you are stupid”
Always trying to end things on the positive, I believe it is not game over, but this is a complete reorganization, MARA will be forced to make what might seem as difficult decisions soon, only to find out how easy they are.
All my opinion and I hope MARA figures this out.
