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Buyback will just be insiders selling their shares to the company imo. We already know that certain insiders are looking to sell large amounts of shares. There isn't a lot of demand for MSLP shares on the open market, they could tank the stock alone selling all the shares they have. I think they are looking for a way for the insiders to sell their shares for as high a price as they can.
Repurchases under MusclePharm's new program will be made in open market or privately negotiated transactions in compliance with Rules 10b5-1 and 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
There is more to a well deployed launch than just getting the web pages live. Obviously that is a big part of it...but a good launch also needs to include publicity...a fanfare and some buzz surrounding it.
I definitely agree that a small delay in order to launch properly is well worth it. Rushing a launch, and having a weak launch just to stick to a certain deadline isn't the right thing to do so I am glad they did delay a bit rather than rush to launch.
I do believe the company is aware of this and looking at ways to maximize the impact of the launch as well as complete the final technical side tasks.
You're welcome Obsolete, and yes he bought a controlling interest in the LKEN shell and then merged it with Accubrite to create his first publicly traded company.
Regarding where you can see that Inkway is 100% owned by LKEN, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Greene Concepts, Inc (which is LKEN), meaning that LKEN owns 100% of Inkway.
Here are a couple of PR's detailing it as a wholly owned subsidiary
and here is an excerpt from their financials showing that LKEN financials include the activities of both Accubrite and Inkway http://clip2net.com/s/6m7hqT
I agree Thrawn, I haven't been on the recent calls however that does sound odd, the company needs to launch as soon as THEY are confident that they can launch the product well and give it adequate publicity at launch.
Timing the launch around when a group of distributors find it convenient is not a good idea at all, unless these distributors have committed significant means to help market/advertise/publicize the launch. Even then, they could do that at any point after launch.
I do hope that it is not the case that launch will be delayed, even by a single day, due to some sort of vote by all involved on the best date to launch.
It appears the founders/distributors have already forfeited the busiest time of year (Christmas) when gifts are being bought and a lot of printing is being done (flyers, photos, newsletters etc etc) and I would hate to think there would be any further delays unless its necessary to achieve a solid launch.
I believe completely that Greene Concepts and its management have every intention of launching Inkway USA very soon and I also believe they have the interests of shareholders at heart. I do not believe previous selling of shares has come from current insiders of the company and I am looking forward to the launch and I'm hopeful that this will mark the start of a new uptrend in the share price and that this time it will stick and we will have an ongoing healthy stock to support the company growth long into the future.
I'm actually not a founder, because like you I was suspicious due to the previous issues with the stock, and I did not like the reverse split. Since then however there are many, many things that I do like and i believe 100% now that Mr Greene and his company are legitimate.
Just on a general note though, you mention the lack of laws in penny stocks to protect investors. It's not strictly true that people who lost money on any penny stock have no legal recourse. There is fiduciary duty law which all companies (big, small, private or public) have to abide by.
It is a broad term however ANY shareholder can sue the directors (including the CEO) on behalf of the company if they believe those directors have not operated in the best interests of the company. The law includes provisions to ensure that no director can put his own personal gain before that of the company.
It can become quite complex but most legal firms will tell you straight off if they think you have a chance or not.
I'm actually in the process of taking action, with a small group of shareholders, against a different penny stock company for what we believe is a blatant breach of fiduciary duty law. So although SEC regulations cannot help OTC shareholders, state law still exists.
Here is a bit more info, if nothing else for an interesting read:
When he was young he worked at the family office supply store "A J Greene Business Machines". At the end of his time there he was the CEO. The business was sold to a Private Equity company and then Lenny founded "Comservco USA" which was an electronics repair/support company for businesses.
Comservco USA is the company that it is stated that in three years Lenny took it from making zero revenue to making $15million revenue in three years. So circa $5 million a year. Comservco is still operating today (http://www.comservcousa.com/) however it has new owners. I can only assume that Lenny Greene either sold it or sold his owning stake in it. Comservco currently generates between $2.5 and $5 million per year (http://www.manta.com/c/mm750zj/comservco-usa-inc)
Lenny went on to start Accubrite which focused on the ink refill business. He bought the controlling stake in the LKEN publicly traded company to merge with Accubrite to create Greene Concepts as a publicly traded company.
Why did he do this? Well, I cannot answer for him but it seems he sees ink as a much bigger business than computer repair and recognizes that being a public company provides access to capital that a private company just doesn't have access to. I know that is what I personally would have done it for.
The ink business is huge, much bigger than a local computer repair business can be, and the advantages of being traded on the stock market are clear.
I think the fact that the company is still focusing on the shareholders shows that Mr Greene still believes he can make stock work and use it to fund company growth.
Hi obsolete, I haven't been around for a few days and I see you have raised some very valid questions over 10 or so posts. I will do my best to answer them all for you. There is a lot to go through so I will split them into a few topics per post. In bold is what I gather your questions were, and then comes my reply. My apologies if i have misunderstood your questions, if so please let me know!
You are concerned we put our money into a refill company, a simple product, now you are concerned about fancy new words like "synergy", the different layers in the founders/distributors platform etc.
You are correct in that in 2010 the company essentially had Accubrite and its "Free Ink 4 Life" refill system which they were selling online and were hoping to get into some stores and have an infomercial. Thereafter they got the product into some catalogs. They do still sell that product, however they have expanded and added two new products to their line. Namely the Ink-telligence smaller retail kit and the flagship Inkway USA kit. The Ink-telligence kit is small and intended for sale in catalogs and retail shops, with the bigger, more expensive Inkway USA kit intended for sale through Multi Level Marketing system (MLM).
The reason you are hearing new words like "synergy" is that is the name given to the MLM compensation plan for the Inkway Distributors. All MLM companies (and there are some huge ones like Amway generating $12 billion a year and Herbalife generating $4 billion a year) have a compensation plan for their distributors that give them not only a commission for selling product themselves, but also a smaller commission for the sales of every other distributor that he or she brings on board. This is how these companies get so many salespeople and generate so many sales. "Synergy" is simply the name given to Inkway USA's compensation plan.
So to recap, "Inkway USA" is the name of the subsidiary that sells the "Inkway USA Ink Refill Kit" products and the "Synergy Compensation Plan" is the compensation plan for the distributors who are selling the Inkway USA products.
You are concerned about what you call ambiguities like Accubrite, Inkway USA, LKEN, Greene Concepts with separate CEO's.
Greene Concepts, Inc (stock ticker LKEN) is the name of the company that owns everything to do with Greene Concepts - that includes Accubrite, Inkway USA, Freeink4life, Ink-telligenge etc. They are all owned by Greene Concepts (LKEN) and Lenny Greene is the only CEO. The subsidiaries can have their own presidents but there is only one CEO.
Look at a large company like Yum! Brands (ticker YUM). They are the parent company that owns subsidiaries like KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Little Sheet etc. Each of these companies has its own president all the money comes through YUM! the parent company and it has one CEO (David C. Novak)
You wanted to know the share structure and how many shares have been sold my management and how many they own.
Ok, the share structure is: Shares Authorized (AS) - 3,000,000,000 Shares Outstanding (OS) - 264,201,999 Public Float - 32,986,332
Of these shares Lenny Greene owns circa 230 million shares of common stock and 10 million are preferred shares. These preferred shares are convertible into 1 billion common shares.
It is important to note that all of Mr Greene's shares are restricted shares. I suppose he could apply for them to be un-restricted but he has never done so before and as of right now has not done so either.
When Lenny Greene first purchased the controlling shares of LKEN (formerly Luke Entertainment) he bought 2.4 billion shares. He still owned those shares at the time of the reverse split, and he still owns them now. Lenny Greene has never sold any of his shares.
For anybody interested here is the wording of how the transaction was reported:
On September 15, 2010, our controlling shareholder, Mark B. Newbauer, sold 2,400,000,000 shares of our common stock, which represented a majority of our outstanding voting control at the time, to Leonard M. Greene, who is now our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. As a result of this change of control, we changed our name from Luke Entertainment, Inc. to Greene Concepts, Inc..
Leonard M. Greene has taken control of Luke Entertainment, Inc. on September 15, 2010. The change of control was effectuated by Leonard M. Greene purchasing the controlling shares of Luke Entertainment, Inc. under a stock purchase agreement from previous owner. The Company changed its name from Luke Entertainment, Inc. to Greene Concepts, Incorporated on November 4, 2010.
As of the latest PR released 26th November, they say that all 5,500+ products have been uploaded into the retail webpages and that the thing they are still working on is "ensure all five Synergy commission levels get routed back to the appropriate entity according to the appropriate synergy distributor pool."
So it looks like the issue is making sure that the correct distributor gets paid, and also that if he has his own downlines (dont forget there are several downlines and five synergy commission levels) that the payment for those downlines is handled properly as well.
here is the exact wording:
Mr. Greene states, "It was our sincerest hope to launch InkWay USA by the end of November. However, the Synergy Distributor compensation plan is revolutionary in consumer direct network marketing which is requiring more testing to ensure proper function and commissions. We have uploaded all of the 5,500 products into the retail webpages and have launched the Vista Print online merchandise store. We are working to ensure all five Synergy commission levels get routed back to the appropriate entity according to the appropriate synergy distributor pool."
"The retail and distributor replicated webpages are programmed and integrated, requiring launch of both platforms simultaneously. The sales commissions for 5,500 products and appropriating the correct synergy distributor and downline payments has to be coded in the same script and launched at the same time. Our web product entails credit card payments, commissionable sales, synergy distribution, and downlines. Unfortunately, the amount of time it takes to complete all of the scripts exceeds the time available in this month. This includes extra validation of the webpage security in a volatile world of cyber security. Our web team programmers continue to run tests and make updated changes late into every night to provide the best platform possible for our distributors."
"We will continue to provide progression updates to the public until the Grand Opening, Launch and software release occurs. You will see the true power and value of the InkWay USA webpages soon, but we absolutely cannot release a less than perfect system. The websites are nearing completion and will be released soon. Our new Vista Print marketing page (http://inkwayusa.biz.vistaprint.com/) illustrates the branding we are using to make the public more aware of our ink solutions and toner solutions. We thank all of you for your continued trust and patience.
So what they are saying is that although they have the 5,500 products uploaded and keyed in already...they need to make sure the synergy commission part is working correctly before they launch because they are so closely tied. Essentially that "we cant launch the products without making sure the commissions and payments go to the right people". The sales commissions for 5,500 products and appropriating the correct synergy distributor and downline payments has to be coded in the same script and launched at the same time. Our web product entails credit card payments, commissionable sales, synergy distribution, and downlines.
Yes you're right. The passage of time combined with perception that nothing is progressing can kill a stock and spoil enthusiasm for the company as well. They need to make the absolute most of this launch, launch it with a fanfare and get the word out to everyone. And that includes the trading world. We can all help with that at launch and get the word out about the stock through whatever means we can.
These 150 share sells are not people wanting to sell their position though, they are "painting" the share price down for their own reasons.
The concerns about launch delay are absolutely founded. It seems that for whatever reason there are known technical problems right now that is stopping the company from launching. You're right nobody can afford a perfect start, but if there are known issues then it would be foolish of them to try and launch if they know there are going to be serious problems with distributors getting paid correctly.
The fact they have changed IT companies who were working on this makes me think the old one wasn't working out and so they had to move to a new one who are working on it. I agree though, it does appear to be taking a very long time to get these issues resolved.
the 5000 products I highly doubt all belong to LKEN. They must just be re-selling a lot of them. The actual ink itself, and that includes all the kits (the Inkway USA, Ink-Telligence, Freeink4life etc) all belong to LKEN 100%. Many of the other products such as the cube printer and I guess a lot of the re-manufactured cartridges they are just reselling in order to have more revenue streams and offer a complete one stop shop solution.
If your concern is that Duane may have the rights to any of the products instead of LKEN, then you don't need to worry about that - LKEN has 100% ownership of the products they developed.
yeah the stock trades incredibly thin, we need a real positive catalyst such as a strong launch to get strong bid support back. The plus side of course is that we can go up 100% very easily also. But a solid bid/ask spread is what we need.
Its sad that someone wants to sell 60 cents worth of their stock in a single trade just to bring the price down. Obviously they will be paying 10x more in commissions for that sell than the 60 cents they made.
I guess it is a disgruntled shareholder who wants to paint the prices low to prove their point. Or someone who wants to keep it low in hopes they can entice others to sell and buy cheaper.
In the last year or so, Greene Concepts has accomplished so much. It makes no sense to me why people would want to abandon the company now when we are just on the verge of launching. And if people seriously don't believe we will ever launch, then I would like to hear the views on why the company would put so much time and resources in preparing for launch. Clearly the products exist, the websites exist, the online advertising material exists, they are spending money keeping current on the OTC markets, they have built a stronger team of people and so on. Why would they possibly do this if they were not intending to launch??
Apart from actually developing the whole Inkway USA division, here are some of the things that have happened in the last year or so:
* Preparing final phases for launch of Inkway USA flagship product
All this while still running the day to day business and selling existing products through existing avenues.
When Inkway launches the reaction could be really big, and the stock is so thin that it can move hard and fast as well. The financing arrangements the company has in place, as well as the restricted stock offering make me believe that they do not intent to dilute on the open market whatsoever and this means if we can get the launch right, the stock can do really well also.
Don't let frustration and anger blind you from reality that things are moving and we have the opportunity to get our investments back on track and even profitable. Just as the positive people here shouldn't be blinded to the reality of the negatives such as the share structure.
We all need to look at this from a realistic point of view.
Speaking of results, lets not forget we have had a ton of results already. Things like raising finance, getting ongoing financing agreements, designing new products, selling current products, increasing scope of sales through new partnerships, getting and maintaining current reporting status on OTC markets and preparing the advertising & technical side of the Inkway launch don't just happen. It takes a lot of time, money, thought & commitment to achieve those things. Its a shame we weren't able to launch in November, however that doesn't completely negate all the other positive things that are going on.
LKEN stock has something that 99.9% of other otc stocks don't have. We have real products that exist and are selling, a real contactable company with real headquarters who are available and responsive by any of the mainstream mediums (email, phone, mail etc) and have made massive strides in improving the product packages they offer and have put together a solid business plan to support them as well. This includes purchase order financing that a couple years ago people here were screaming that they should have. Apart from that we are on the cusp of the big launch.
I understand peoples frustrations with delays, but to throw in the towel now when we are just about to launch what we have been working towards for 2 years is insane imo.
The commercials Lenny went to shoot are actually really slick and professional imo. I believe they shot several but the ones I have seen that have been made available so far look really good to me:
Compare this with the old videos below, you can see how much more professional, slick, up to date and serious they are.
Hi Obsolete, I think everyone would agree that right now what you say is 100% correct, everyone is entitled to their view and yes I think we can all understand why some people are annoyed.
It's certainly fair to say that people can be losing faith however I do think its wrong to just entirely discount the leaps and bounds this company has come from even a year ago. Especially in the most recent months and when we are so close to launch. So many things have happened recently and they clearly have been working hard on financing, advertising, and preparing for launch. And as their financials show they are still selling product through their "old" route as well and making revenue that way.
I have said all along that the company should be bigging-up their flagship products that they have developed and have patents for, ie the quality of the inkway USA kits and the ink-telligence kits vs the cheaper competition. They should be really bigging-up their unique products but I still do think that the other products they sell are warranted because it sets them up as a one stop shop for everyone's needs and means they can sell different products to people with different needs. Some people don't want to refill at all so they can buy the re-manufactured products, or they might not want to drill holes and inject their cartridges so they can buy the open-cap refillable cartridges etc, some people have laser printers so they can buy the toner instead etc etc etc.
I honestly don't think any of the mods on this board have been responsible for any posts being removed, I myself posted 4 posts on Sunday, and 3 of them were removed. There are terms of service that we all have to abide by.
The company released its financials a week ago, they were good numbers and they are maintaining their Current status tier at OTC markets. They realized they were not going to be able to keep the November launch date so PR'd publicly the reasons why along with a small update. Over the last few months they have been publicizing recent developments which included recent partnerships with other companies and financing deals, and clearly there have been big developments on the company products and websites side of things.
Nobody is hiding away here nor is there any indication that they wont launch. Why would they waste all this time, money and resources if they were not taking their business seriously? It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever to do so.
Things are moving, not as quickly as some would like, but they are moving and there are many positive things being done.
From the latest PR it certainly didn't feel like they were planning to delay launch for any long period of time, just until they are very certain that everything is ready to be launched.
Some really positive things in the report Jazz, and I'm really pleased to see Greene Concepts release the report to maintain their current status on OTC Markets.
Good to see you as well, I've got a bit of catching up to do on everything LKEN but am on it now!
Kudos to Mr Greene & Co for getting the yearly financials filed, and keeping their OTC Current tier placing. That's very important and so I'm really pleased to see them make this filing before the Inkway launch!
Annual Earnings Report out 77% Increase in gross profit, that's really great to see and shows they are out there selling and we haven't even launched Inkway yet!
Share structure remains the same, showing zero dilution whatsoever so hopefully that puts the "Lenny quietly diluting" argument to rest.
Yes I 100% agree. I'm not sure myself why the need to have a 3 billion AS right now. I know they have said that they dont intend to increase the AS again...so it could very well be that they want to be up front and honest and say "ok we have a 3 billion AS but that is all we need, we wont raise it again" - and that is a noble thing to do. However its not the best way to do it because it can stop us ever reaching greatness in the first place.
A really good approach would be to reduce that AS to a more reasonable level now and then as the company grows and the share price goes they can increase it periodically in reasonable amounts as and when needed. An AS or OS increase with valid and publicized reasons why isn't a bad thing and a strong company and strong PPS can easily support it.
I agree Venture_Cap, really positive things happening here and the company has not diluted to pay for any of it .. they have put in place financial plans to allow them to grow without selling shares onto the open market (PO financing, the restricted stock offering and of course the initial founders program).
The AS is a concern, absolutely. Multi-billion share AS companies are treated differently than lower AS companies. Many many traders just wont buy shares for more than a few cents when they see those kind of AS numbers just due to the stigma that it has. We either need to hope that enough investors do see the potential and aren't phased by the AS, or that we get an AS decrease.
This company has huge things lined up and a great potential, but the AS will make it harder for us.
Some awesome news and info over the weekend, I just got back so need to catch up in detail with it all but wow...lots of great developments and we are so close to launch now.
Would be great to see some better bid support here before launch, the higher we are at launch the better.
I will be posting more later today, once I have red all the news in detail!
Thanks Jazz for clarifying that, and yes I agree it is clear that Mr Greene hasn't sold his shares. To be honest he probably never had, and still doesn't, have any intention to. It is his company and his shares are what give him ownership. Really, Mr Greene or other insiders selling shares absolutely does not concern me because I don't believe it is going to happen at all.
I agree with the share structure comment, it IS too much. Its a big red flag to most investors and in my opinion will be the biggest stumbling block in getting us to a significantly higher price per share level.
The company doesn't have unlimited funds, far from it, and I do agree that spending a lot of money on things like the dividend shares isn't a good use of capital now. The DTC chill I think should be dealt with though- the first steps are to begin communication with the DTCC (http://www.dtcc.com/) and find out why the chill was placed, and what needs to be done to remove it. Sometimes they are simple things, sometimes not. I dont know what progress has been made here already. I do know that the RS and share structure may be an issue here though.
The company is doing a great job in their day to day business imo, and it is right that they are focusing their efforts on the Inkway Launch. That is the most important thing right now. Without that, we cannot grow so I am pleased they are working so hard on that. The share side could use a little help. I believe Lenny Greene has the shareholders interests at heart and so I think people can take the fear of insiders dumping shares off of the list imo.
Thank you obsolete, i must say that Jazz has put in much more time here than I have but thank you for your kind words :)
And you're right, people are scared because of, lets face it, huge losses and the history from 2 to 3 years ago is certainly not forgotten.
I never have bought into the debate that we have "pumpers" and "bashers" and there is no middle ground. The middle ground should be any trader who can look at a company and a stock objectively and realize the upsides as well as the downsides. Really, every legitimate trader should be the middle ground type person.
There are a lot of positives coming out of this company right now, but some negatives do remain. We should all be working towards increasing the positives but also not letting the company lose sight of the negatives that need to be addressed. slowly but surely i think we are getting there.
Hi Obselete, good to see you again. I completely understand your point of view and you make some very valid points that I'm sure are at the front of the majority of investors minds.
I do not believe that there will be a repeat though.
Regarding Mr Greene himself actually selling shares, as far as I can see he never has. He appears to have had 2.4billion shares all along and up until the reverse split he still owned those shares, which were reverse split to 24million shares. Also his preferred shares have never been sold or converted into common shares. I'm not saying that the share structure is ideal, or even good, but I am saying that as far as selling shares goes...i don't believe it was Greene Concepts insiders doing it and it doesn't look like Mr Greene ever did.
I wrote a post about this a while back, I don't know who exactly was selling those shares (clearly someone was selling bigtime)but I don't believe it was Lenny Greene himself and there are no other large shareholders within Greene Concepts right now other than him.
I think that probably "most" people looking at this stock right now share your concerns, its something that the company needs to deal with and prove its not going to be repeated.
That's a really good suggestion that anyone can very easily do. I only have a professional account that I cant really do random re-tweets on however I can certainly set up a new one, even if just for the purposes of letting people know about green concepts.
I guess seeking out some good Green/Eco/Thrift type tweeters or companies and following would be a good thing to do. If they follow you back and you can tweet some Greene Concepts stuff then you could in turn get some powerful re-tweets from them.
The same goes for the stock, there are a lot of traders out there on twitter. When we launch it would be a good thing if we have people out there we could tweet to who know about trading who might be interested and could re-tweet to their followers too.
The higher the PPS range is before Launch, the better for all. If the company can do a big fanfare launch, and we can get investors looking at the stock at the same time, then we will be in a good place.
yeah its really odd, specially for LKEN. I mean, there's not much volume trading right now anyway so I'm not sure what people are trying to achieve by selling $5 worth on the bid. It certainly doesn't cover commissions at the vast majority of brokers.
I can understand why some people would want to paint the price lower on stocks that are actually getting a lot of trading volume, but not for LKEN right now.
Thanks John! It is very nice to see some upward movement in the stock, what we really need is volume coming in. This stock is really thing both ways - not much bid support but also not many people wanting to sell at these levels either. I'm confident that the company will launch and that we have a great product and company here...we just need to get the word out to the masses about the stock. With just a 35 million share public float if we can garner enough interest in the stock I think this thing can go up quickly, and stay up as long as nobody starts dumping a load of shares.
Thank You Jazz, I spent some time last night trying to embed them properly as well and hit the same spacing issue as you did, well done on getting the two inkway presentation videos to display correctly! Thank you for all the time you have spent making it THE best iHub page I have seen :D
Thank you Jazz, good to be here! I'm glad there is the rollback feature on the iBox since i have never used it before lol. And yes i checked and it is 1 sticky per moderator. kind of an odd rule, but hey-ho!
If you would like to add me as a moderator so that I can help out with some things then I will be happy to do that :) i just cant commit to being here most days since I travel a lot. But I'm more than happy to help, I know you spend a lot of time making this board valuable for everyone and its a lot to ask of one person
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