Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
SMoothie King once did well. KD arrived. Went downhill. He bolted. The downhill slide continues. Not sure it was really his doing, though. Look at the stock chart on Jamba Juice (JMBA) and its financials. Much bigger than Smoothie King and they are struggling big time.
136 views of that video. Probably almost all from people on this board or Yahoo. Such low interest confirms what a turd of a product poken is. Trying to be objective, though slamming KD has been easy to do, KD did the right thing in only signing a Memo of Understanding and I believe he dumped those guys.
Need Wicked to ask Yvonne if the company will do a conf call after the close on Monday along with the planned quarterly earnings release.
Being taken off the Roth schedule does not eliminate BYI acquisition. I never expected EGMI to present at the conf, in light of my belief of a BYI acquisition. I only expected KD to be there to answer questions in the breakout session if BYI requested he be there and BYI were to turn to him to say a few words re: EGMI.
If an acquisition, I also never expected BYI to start speaking at 11:30 since too many of their interested listeners would have shown up at 12:00 and been pissed that they missed part of the presentation.
It certainly is a logical day for Yvonne to tell us the EPS will be released, when if an acquisition then they will not be released and none of the SEC stuff needs to be cleared up.
I agree with WM that now the key is getting the "blessing" on the financial statements (if no acquisition)
I remain hopeful since it is logical and would be a great exit.
"Blows a whole in your theory" of this AM. Which theory specifically? You had quite an interesting insomniac rambling this morning (smiles) and I want to understand exactly which rambling you refer to. Please copy/paste from your prior posting.
I highly doubt schiff would have ratted on EGMi to SEC. He still was getting paid by EGMi under the three year contract. Maybe he still has options. Maybe he knows Bally is going to acquire. Schiff is wise to keep quiet and upon the acquisition, he probably gets paid for three years of work, while working about 8 months. He also has a professional business network based in SoCal and his Stanford alumni base, so why would he risk his self-respect and his network because he has some pissy feelings? The downside on your theory is too great in my opinion.
Extremely helpful. Really helps clear up a dark cloud that spooked me. Yours is the most logical explanation I have heard. Maybe with the more stringent SEC guidelines on accounting you need to be a CPA to be the CFO. Perhaps KD was so comfortable with his skill set that he was ok with Schiff just being a consultant and handling the CFO related stuff. I don't recall seeing a SEC filing by EGMI regarding his consulting contract.
If he let his license lapse, then no D&O insurance for him. I was told Schiff was from a very wealthy family and did not want to risk his family fortune. I always doubted that. I once looked him up on the Stanford MBA website with my secret password. No profile on him. No real details other than a picture of him at a class reunion. I do not doubt he may have quite a few millions in the bank, but it was portrayed that he had a vast family fortune. Doubt it. Nice excuse.
As I think more....I stated this in a different post quite a while ago....It took two months for him to resign because the company did not have D&O. Based on your post, I suspect it took two months for the insurance company to determine he did not qualify or his rate would be so high due to not being an active CPA. Thus, Linden could go back to being interim CFO and maybe Tom just does the CFO work (as you describe). That would be especially likely if Linden lives in London (anyone know?)
I did a quick web search using Schiff's name, fraud, sec, etc and nothing comes up. There is a Thomas Schiff in LA dealing with a recent fraud, but different guy - he is a lawyer graduated from Harvard (gee, who would have guessed?)
I agree with you on the "extensive search". I concluded the same a while ago. Yeah, they probably did get a 1000 resumes, but Schiff was always going to get the job, unless the CFO of IBM applied for the job.
Great posts. I had many similar thoughts and really agree with you on how it makes no sense that mgmt could seem like such buffoons when they seemed so "with it" prior to the CFO joining/resigning and then LS death. The CFO thing really doesn't make sense, esp since KD worked with him at CFO's prior company.
Welcome back to the fold. Hopefully, we will all be very happy on March 15.
Absolutely right the states need the lottery money. However, the gaming companies need revenue streams beyond Vegas and other casinos. Vegas visits are down. Gaming revs in Vegas are down. I assume such visits to other casinos in US are down and for those visitors I suspect the gambling dollars are down per visitor.
These gaming providers (BYI and SciGames) are taking a hit from this pattern. They need to take their business to the customers and that is the millions (thousands?) of convenience/grocery/discount stores that sell lottery tickets. I do not see govt as a roadblock to any of this, given as you stated the govt budget problems.
OK. I get it. Great point. Let's hope it is cheaper to acquire the technology (EGMI) than it is to develop an alternative.
Interesting. I think Bally is a far more likely acquiror than SciGames. Looking at the financials on Yahoo shows Bally with a much stronger balance sheet and more free cash flow. SciGames has 10x the debt at $1.3Bil vs Bally at $192 mil. EBITDA at BYI is much stronger. SciGames just released a disappointing Q4 and it may not be the right time to take on an acquisition. However, if they see EGMI as a game changer, then it makes sense.
EGMI makes sense for both companies based on their company description on Yahoo. I have not researched either company beyond looking at Yahoo.
Reminder, EGMI has the 11:30 slot on Monday and Bally has the 12:00 slot on Monday at Roth. Merger Monday?
Perhaps EGMI's patent protection would make it impossible for SciGames to do a work around. Do we have any legal experts on the board here who may have an answer?
I assume the EGMI patents are fully registered at the US patent office and are legit. I have never verified.
Inconsequential. I see all are listed as temporarily unavailable. Likely a rounding error in EGMI revenue stream that hardly even covered the cost of keeping site open. I bet within one year poken will not even be sold. Their distribution in Europe is awful.
Nice post. That $12 mil in the bank is 17 cents/share on a 34 cent stock.
Question for you. Isn't the lack of lottery sales in US due to the SciGames contract that is/has(?) expired that precludes EGMI from selling for lotteries?
I just wanted to have post 12,000
Nice psychological assessment of his sellers remorse. I've been in his shoes. Buy at a higher price, sell at the bottom, then see the stock rocket. Best for him to delete EGMI from his stock screen and never look at it again. Move on.
However, if he has some logical, factual reason to believe this is a five cent stock, I'd like to hear it.
I believe there is a greater rationale for this being a 75 cent stock than a five cent stock. Reality, is that if all is in order with the company the stock is worth much more than 75 cents. I will avoid placing a value to avoiding looking like a tout.
I agree with you on the skin in the game. I suspect that she accepted stock payment instead of cash for the work she had done or would do over a period of time. It does align her interests with shareholders.
Like I said before, she works for EGMI and not us
Best news of the day. No way would I sell with the confirmation that they are presenting. If they do not announce being acquired or that KD/AH are out, shareholders in the audience will rip them a new one during the breakout session.
One poster earlier today had a great point that the dead silence was likely dictated by the acquirer a while back and whenever that started the acquisition share price had already been decided. If not decided and nothing was amiss with the company then EGMI mgmt would have had a CC.
I read an article over the weekend from the drudgereport.com citing the big drop in gaming profits in vegas. Maybe it makes sense for Bally or whoever else to think outside the box (hate to use that term) and aggressively go after a new revenue stream. LS apparently saw the vision of such a possibility with EGMI.
Any idea if Yvonne ever sold any shares or does she own 100% of the share she purchased.
I never heard of those three stocks. Glad to hear they do not even belong in the same sentence with EGMI. Thanks for the reply. I am growing more and more optimistic about next Monday. But if EGMI pulls out of Roth, then I worry big time.
I think you noted last week that if someone is buying these large blocks, they must know something. I think that may prove to be a highly astute observation by you (& I really hope it proves to be the case)
You state the Roth conf still on. Does this mean you confirmed with EGMI that it is on? Or did you confirm with Roth (which is a less valuable confirmation, though still helpful)? Or are you only looking at the online schedule at the Roth website? Will be very helpful to know your answer.
Buckey
Curious if you know whether the three companies you cite ever had signed agreements with legitimate companies like EGMI has with SciGame and Bally. If not, then maybe those three are not a valid comparison and if not then it would give room for optimism with EGMI
Thanks
Kardon
I liked your A thru D. I agree with D also. Regardless of London, LA, NYC, she is just a phone call or email away.
Yvonne does do a good job and likely each of us would have done the same as her if in her shoes and with her experience level. She is kind of between a rock and a hard place. She has to craft the investor message for EGMI, but when the company becomes derailed mgmt absolutely knows before her. She is the second to know and she likely knows pretty soon after mgmt knows of such a derailment. They will call her to give her the unpleasant update and ask her for advice on how/when to advise investors. She has to craft the message and speak for the company.
Whatever has been going on here at EGMI has been going on for a while. Therefore, she likely knows exactly what is going on.
Question for you. Can a takeout price be inferred by the option and warrant prices? The highest option price is $0.52, thus mgmt would be incentivized to sell the company at a reasonable premium to $0.52.
Would the warrants at $1.25 imply anything in terms of a floor on the price of an acquisition? How about the nearly 2 million warrants expiring on March 30, 2010. The 10Q shows warrants at $0.50 and $1.25 expiring six months from Sept 30 2009. That is March 30, 2010. I don't know if mgmt or Lord Steinberg's estate owned any of those warrants. Perhaps investors? Perhaps used as payment instead of cash?
My consistent critiques of Yvonne should not imply she does a bad job as an IR rep. She does a good job. She represents her client well. Her client is EGMI. EGMI pays her. You, me, and the rest of the board do not pay her. None of us are her client.
It is her job to craft EGMI’s message to investors. It is her job to speak when she is allowed to. That is dictated by the paying client and RegFD. The client has to keep her in the loop since they pay her for her advice on how best to handle investors. If they do not tell her everything, then how can she advise them?
Nobody on the bumbling mgmt team has any experience in the spotlight with investors at an officer level at a company traded on the NYSE, NASDAQ or Amex. Thus, they all know they need her advice. Yvonne is a highly valuable asset for EGMI. Whatever is going on, Yvonne is likely advising them to keep quiet and she has been giving such advice for about two months.
I see that as a classicly elusive answer by Yvonne. She answers your question with a question. That leads you to logically believe she does not know the answer. Trust me she knows the answer, but she does not know the definitive answer until the Board acts. Thus, as she states "I am waiting just like everyone else" is not an inaccurate statement.
I am sure she knows what the Board is discussing since she is close to the key execs and the key execs are on the board. Nearly 100% of her conversations will be with CEO and acting-CFO. They can keep her 100% current on what is happening because they & Yvonne know she can't trade the stock she owns, nor can she divulge to any of us any material information (RegFD). Hence, almost any question anyone on this board tries to ask her is never going to get info that could be regarded as material, thus has no impact on the share price.
The only useful info/questions to send her are ideas like changing the auditors to a legit firm like BDO, dumping the CEO, selling the company, etc.
Thanks for the feedback and your insights given your work experience.
A poster from Friday (I believe it was Junewong) kept noting the huge blocks being traded. That poster also stated that for someone to be buying such huge blocks, that block purchaser must know something.
Clearly EGMI has leaks of RegFD information or else this stock would not have had such high volume price declines. Perhaps there are leaks to the upside where someone knows definitively of such a buyout. I can't imagine why else anyone would be willing to buy up such huge blocks. I doubt it is more than one person/entity doing so since there has never been more than two large institutions holding a greater than 5% position.
Yvonne is not completely in the dark. Give me a break. She is likely 90% informed on everything. She is a defacto employee of EGMI. I continue to advise not giving her a free pass. Put your pleasant conversations with her aside and analyze her and your interactions just like you would a stock. She has fed each of us disinformation.
Depends on what percent of your total assets are in EGMI, risk tolerance, blah, blah blah.
However, if EGMI keeps its scheduled appearance at the Roth conf I believe they would only do so if they have positive news. No way would they want to be face to face with investors with the debacle we have been put through. See my post 11836 of a buyout speculation. That post is in reply to another guy who posted a different buyout scenario. So, you get both scenarios in one efficient package.
Consider selling half your position this week. Hold on to the other half for March 15. If we get positive news on March 15 then the stock should soar. Sell into that strength and you probably break even despite selling at a loss on half the shares this week. Just an opinion.
Someone already posted it is egmi.pk
Any idea what symbol this is under on Yahoo? Not finding it.
All set....another poster stated egmi.pk
Here’s a different buyout possibility that I speculated on back on Feb 17. I wrote it in reaction to a posted noting that on Yahoo on Feb 17 there suddenly appeared a date for the Q4 earnings call.
The plot thickens as March 15 is also the date they speak at the Roth Conference in Laguna, CA. EGMI is still listed as confirmed and scheduled for 11:30 AM. Bally Technologies is also listed as confirmed and scheduled for 12:00 and in the same conf room, thus immediately after EGMI on the same stage. Is this when they co-announce an acquisition? Being the larger company and the acquiror, Bally would issue the first press release. This is further circumstantial evidence for EGMI being acquired.
Furthermore, it is on a Monday and that is always the preferred day for merger announcements.
Additionally, why would Roth schedule EGMI to have the absolute prime time slot of 11:30? Companies never want the pre-9AM slots or the last slot of the day. Below is the list of companies presenting and their market caps. Why would EGMI get such a strong lead-in? It is sandwiched after two $multi-billion market caps and before two $multi-billion market caps. Most importantly, it precedes Bally and that makes it very easy for Bally to claim the EGMI slot to do a major presentation and then to introduce EGMI to the investor audience.
8 am EGT 30 mil
GCA 537 mil
SHFL 451 mil
MGAM 127 mil
ASCA 877 mil
KNM 2.4B
WMS 2.2B
EGMI 62 mil
BYI 2.3B
IGT 5.2B
GMTC 21 mil
CRYP NA
CNTY 59 mil
HYC 194 mil
TUC 141 mil
4:30 pm AAIR 58 mil
If we had a cataclysmic disaster on our hands I suspect EGMI would have already canceled that conference presentation. Legitimate companies, like a Bally, like to make meaningful announcements at conferences because they have a critical mass of investors all in one location. It makes for a very efficient strategy of disseminating info and answering investor questions for the CFO and investor relations of Bally. Both mgmt teams can saunter over to the breakout session and answer questions together.
I see the March 15 earnings date as further circumstantial evidence for EGMI being taken over (see my prior postings). Maybe the accounting restatement was discovered by the Bally auditors (Deloitte) during due diligence. That is a far greater likelihood than the EGMI auditors making such a discovery. Afterall, EGMI auditors validated statements for the prior three years. What could have possibly have made such a rinky-dink auditor suddenly decide to look over the books again? Deloitte has an army of staffers in the US, UK and globally. Deloitte certainly will have read through the many definitive agreements that EGMI signed in 2009 and validated those are legally binding.
I suspect EGMI stock will never trade again if EGMI and Bally are working on an acquisition. If it opens for trading before the pre-March 15 announcement of an acquisition and the stock tanks and then it is announced that EGMI is acquired for $x.yz value, you can be sure every shareholder selling in that window of trading prior to an announcement will have a guaranteed legitimate lawsuit. Bally and EGMI won't allow this to open for trading and the SEC will agree with such rationale.
The emergence of additional lawsuits will likely drive a nominally higher acquisition price of EGMI. That is because Bally would factor in the cost of $ and time in defending such lawsuits and add that to whatever fair market value it offers to EGMI. That would be the case if the acquisition price is sub-$2.24 (52-week high). Above that price and I doubt Bally has any reason to worry about shareholder lawsuits. Those who traded shares due to radio silence by EGMI probably have no grounds for a lawsuit since all shareholders were on equal footing.
Perhaps my theory of an acquisition explains why cirQ has not happened. Maybe Bally told EGMI not to sign a definitive agreement with Poken. Maybe this is why there is no BoD announcements and no new CFO. Maybe Bally lawyers told EGMI and Yvonne to go on radio silence.
Maybe wait until Monday to avg down, not tomw. ;)
I spoke with analyst a couple weeks ago. They suspended only because of the trading suspension by SEC. Maybe they will still be allowed to speak. Roth covers a small stock like this for hopeful banking fees and it fits the profile of their typical coverage. It would be a huge disservice to their audience not to have EGMI. Only way EGMI does not speak is if EGMI pulls out, which they would of course only have the courtesy to do on the morning of March 15. (sarcasm)
I meant to post this as a reply to your post. Apologies for doing this twice. Can't delete prior post
These buffoons will have plenty of time to discuss the Bally agreement on March 15. EGMI still on the schedule and still sandwiched between the multi-billion market cap companies. Perhaps EGMI mgmt can take lessons from a real management team.
I can’t imagine these buffoons ever doing a conf call with Q&A. KD will get hammered at the Roth Conf also and that could be worse with an audience face to face. A conf call could go on for hours and the grilling would be relentless if KD remains. They’d have to set a 90 minute time limit. The only way to save himself from such a conf call is to resign or sell the company. I still hold out hope for it being acquired with an announcement on March 15. See my post 10767
These buffoons will have plenty of time to discuss the Bally agreement on March 15. EGMI still on the schedule and still sandwiched between the multi-billion market cap companies. Perhaps EGMI mgmt can take lessons from a real management team.
I can’t imagine these buffoons ever doing a conf call with Q&A. KD will get hammered at the Roth Conf also and that could be worse with an audience face to face. A conf call could go on for hours and the grilling would be relentless if KD remains. They’d have to set a 90 minute time limit. The only way to save himself from such a conf call is to resign or sell the company. I still hold out hope for it being acquired with an announcement on March 15. See my post 10767
I did that and do not see the 30 trades. Where is it?
For what (little) it is worth, today's press release About EGMI section did not include the paragraph below from the Bally Tech (& I assume prior press releases) press release. Maybe the sole focus going forward will be on gaming. I believe that would be a positive.
EGMI's client base is across the $100 billion global market of, sales promotion, gaming and casinos, Indian gaming and state and national lotteries markets. EGMI develops sales and marketing relationships with agents and distributors globally and currently has agents and distributors in North America, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Korea, Mexico, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, South Africa Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Maybe the accountants (dim & witt) in Cali thought the 9:30 market open was west coast time and they were a little late to the office so it went out at a little before 10 AM. What's to worry? (only a joke for some levity)