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how many sponges did you buy while watching TV?
The general sport enthusiast that TV focuses on is the male, I don't see them getting a woody during a game seeing the Spongetech logo and going out to buy a car wash kit. Doesn't quite work that way.
do you think in Boston people sign up for Covidian because of the sign on the Green monster?
from what i have come to understand, their technology is old. The fact that they hold the patent that SPNG needs implies that something is wrong because Dicon sold the company for barely more than the cost of the new BLDG. why?
If SPNG was increasing in revenues, so too would Dicon, and yet they sold a new building below cost.
personal opinion; it takes money to make money. The advertisement costs were factored into the scam. I actually think the advertising yielded sales they never expected but like any flash in the pan that this is, they also know that it is short lived.
How many made for TV products have longevity?
Profits still come from RME not SPNG.
The class action lawsuit may just be an opportunistic law firm looking to steal 1/3 of any settlement they could get out of SPNGE.
you do realize that they only get paid if they win a class action right. if they do win it generally means shareholders got screwed.
Do your own research.
Actually I know both. Just because you don't means nothing. I know who sent the contact list to teh reporter and have asked for a copy myself from that individual. I also know who sent that contact list to the IR firm to forward to the NY Post.
Spongeeater, you are incorrect. SM has the right to no comment but he does not have a right to mislead a reporter into reporting false information.
Is that a threat? SPNG claims business with certain entities, I certainly have a right to validate the business exists. Do you have issue if a shareholder contacts customers? How about Class Action Attorney's or maybe the SEC?
How will you know whether a Customer was contacted unless you check yourself; which is a contact is it not?
How about - because the reporter was reporting on information Steve gave her. It is illegal to mislead the public about your business as an officer of a company regardless of what means you use to engage in such deception.
Maybe that is why they fail to show on my searches. I was wondering how you buy a product that is difficult to find in simple word search.
Comments fourkids?
gee, and I thought posting PO's was positive.
The link QVC.com. Run your own search.
Interesting. I ran a search on SpongeTech, Car Sponge, Sponge Kit and that item never shows.
Considering that the posting history of the source was quite positive SPNG until the recent trading halt, I will take to the opinion this is not disinformation provided by a short seller. The individual who sent it to me has held them for some time and admitted that they came from a private chatroom where conversations were less two sided.
I doubt very much that this was a "setup" that was orchestrated long ago (before I knew SPNG existed) just to trap me.
Search of the QVC Site shows that there are no SpongeTech products being sold on-line. QVC ordered 2600 units of Pet Sponges at $10.00 ea.
HSN has no SpongeTech items on their site. What they do have that is similar is being significantly reduced in price. According to the PO they purchased 9500 units of the Car Kit in march at $9.50/unit. Doesn't look like they reloaded.
How about phone calls.
So the PO's are forgeries? Funny they were validated as being real. now why would you think they are forgeries.
As for who sent them to me, it was a long who was part of a private message board where these were posted some time ago.
I am interested in hearing why you think or can prove that these are forgeries.
"wasn't Sperenza, who Kaja Whitehouse admittedly said had "no connection" to the company, the individual who supplied these "non existent" contacts to Whitehouse?
No. She received the information from the SPNG IR firm that has subsequently resigned. It is in her article.
Why would the company supply their customer contact numbers to a tabloid? From what I understand, IT"S JUST NOT DONE.
Ant yet they release their purchase orders to people to post on the web so that competitors can see what others are paying? LMAO Looks like PCH was paying $8.50 or $8.25 for the same kit Walgreens was paying $6.00. Do you think they should be releasing that to public forums?
You missed my argument.
I am not denying increased present day sales. Those sales orders affirm this. What I am claiming is that until they can prove their major clients of 2009 it is all moot. These purchase orders reveal SPNG as a new supplier and account for what I see as $1 Million in 2009 sales.
BTW..Clerical error deleted section on site. Will need to go into backup and re-install.
The sales orders define locations of sales delivery. They are also admitted to be REAL Sales orders.
Typo - Being corrected.
To put all the cards out on the table. Lets look at what we know SPNG has for Sales Orders.
http://investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/files/SpongeTech%20Sales%20Orders.pdf
ozz, somewhere earlier it was posted that Spongetech's marketing executive was quoted as proclaiming that they expected to see a 4 - 5X value on the $20 Million 2009 marketing blitz.
First, I question what is the value being defined is. Is it revenue or is it profit. I think we all agree that $20 Million in advertising in 2009 will not result in $100 Million in profits.
Further, the Marketing executive claimed the 2009 budget was $20 Million and that would be the generator of 4 - 5X value. I offered the conservative and figured he meant Calendar 2009 and not Fiscal 2009 so 2008 advertising does not qualify. If it were Fiscal 2009 he was already off.
While I agree that sales should offer capital for marketing, history has demonstrated that sales does not seem to create positive cash flow despite the numbers. In a year of $50 Million in revenues and $10 Million profits, the company raised $12 Million from RME. In 2009 they likewise purchased Dicon (not done in fiscal 2009) and invested in GFGU (not done in fiscal 2009). so based on how the cash flows, it would be interesting to see how $20 Million yields 4 - 5X value and where that $20 Million comes from without it being from more share dilution. Cash flow history does not support it.
I'm actually trying to figure out where the $20 Million comes from if the company is not diluting the stock and never seems to have any capital.
BTW...Did anybody find those major distributor companies they sell to yet?
If you pay $20 million and get 4-5X value that would be $80 - $100 Million. It also depends on what you consider Value. If Value is revenue and $50 Million yields $10 Million profit, $100 Million yields $20 Million profit. Thus, the $20 Million in advertising would be net Zero. Or...Value is profit which implies $20 Million advertising investment should yield $80 - $100 Million profit which is not happening.
But why no name of the sports executive? The sports executive was discussing a termination of the SPNG contract and his name was not given; he was referred to as a source. Imagine that.
Just as interesting, the Marketng executive was quoted and yet at the bottom SpongeTech had no response. Isn't the marketing executive part of spongetech?
Were they advertising overseas last year as all of the sales growth came from overseas in 2009; not domestically where you claim these advertisements were being placed. Tell me, when was the last time you went to a basball game or watched one on TV and then checked in on the advertised product? I know I haven't ever done that. Until you became an investor, did you even notice them?
Funny I didn't see or hear of much advertising overseas last year.
Think of it this way, Between 2008 and present teh economy has sucked. But while retail is hurting, and the economy sucks, SPNG is pushing a 10X improvement year over year betwwen 08 and 09 and was already pushing a 50% improvement between 09 and 2010 based on Q1 bookings.
It is hard to believe that novelty items are generating huge sales growth when the basic necessities are slumping.
Did you call the IR firm and get the list they supplied?
If you are so struck, why not call up and ask yourself. BTW, putting names on your contacts is not basic journalism, if you know anything sources are usually UNNAMED! That is why they are referred to as sources. Journalism 102.
fourkids, it is not so hard to understand.
If your interests are in bettering the market and exposing scams, you expose them. If your aim is to expose short sale fraud your research takes you in many places. It will even take you to places where "short sale abuse" is used to cover up the real game being played. I explained this to you in grave detail.
For me, I don't just walk away from investors I see being abused because it is not in line with my agenda (correct short sale abuses). It is MY OPINION that SPNG is a fraud based on teh years of looking at this from the other side. It smells like internal fraud (it has all the signals) and when these monketys at SpongeTech started to claim NSS fraud it created a problem for those trying to rid the markets of short sale abuses.
This company and this board have used a well oiled promotion game IMO and that promotion game suckerted in a great deal of innocent people. Anybody simply feeding that frenzi by continuing to promote the story is doing their friends and associates a disservice. You show the next con artists how it works.
Thanks to all that aided with the leads.
http://investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/files/The%20Story%20of%20the%20Fake%20Customers.doc
satisfied camper? My techie came to the same conclusions.
How many more does it take before the issue is signed off as resolved. The link is made between the fake sites and SPNG.
camper, what are your thoughts if these three are linked together? you seem to want to discredit the link between them all but what does it mean if this is all true?
Does this link further confirm that a scam is underway?
I don't know, go to your techie and find out what he can about who created the three web sites in question.
It was a simple request with no know answer. you are now shooting the answer because you don't like the connection. Funny thing is, the one who provided the answer knew nothing about the connection when the name was provided. For me, i had never heard of the guy when it was provided to me.
So camper, you don't like the response, disprove it. SA Trading, Dubai Export Import, and Fresco domains were all registered by Dana Salzarulo according to an expert in tracking it down.
What is off the mark? The three web sites run back to Dana Salzarulo. He pulled out/registered the domain names. Digging deeper, the phone numbers associated with these companies (as provided by Moscowitz) turn up leading back to Speranza. Now we see that speranza and Salzarulo have a distint history together.
What is the stretch? Payments we know of were made to promote SPNG. We are yet to find what other payments were made and for what. What we know is the circle was closed between SPNG and these two.
and the guy running no hype media just happens to be the same setting up the sham websites.
Try not to TOU me for my response now camper as I am responding to your question that I consider not SPNG specific.
we all have sources that are experts in certain kinds of research. I have my skills, you have yours, etc... in this case I went to a techie expert that knows how to look deeper into web site information and such. It is one of his expertise's. If you choose to call this an unsubstantiated third party I guess that is your prerogative. The fact that he is well recognized for doing just that, I choose to simply say I went to an expert and reported his findings.
Actually no. I know the source and confide in him frequently. He is a tech expert and ferret's out this kind of stuff. I asked him to "do his magic" which I posted the response.
A techie researching the Websites came up with it when researching who set up the fake web sites.