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Wow! For this statement to be included in the PR " This deal is expected to close in the coming week regardless of which offer is accepted." it would seem that we would have to be talking a cash deal. With that much cash on the balacnce sheet it opens the door to all sorts of possibilites. Will they walk it down one more time so those of us who still have dry powder can use it? Stay tuned. Go IDWS!!!
Hector777: I take exception to one portion of your post. You look as bashers being here as a negative while I look at it as a positive as they would not be here if there were not a large naked short position. That short position should propel the stock to higher levels when the company forces those who are short to cover. The company has been very proactive in that regard so far. The next few weeks should be fun imho.
Go IDWS!!!
A cash dividend for even half of that would reward all sharehoolders including management and at the same time certainly cause pain to anyone who might be short as there would be an incentive to hold rather than sell. Go IDWS!!!
I think most longs would love that kind of approach. jmho
All the longs need to do is wait and watch. We should be getting news from the company regarding the spinoff, offers on the table per yesterdays PR, etc., etc.. In the meantime it is nice to see the price rising. This alone serves as vindication to management imho. Perhaps someone here has a resource available which demonstrates the valuation which should be assigned to portals. I remember reading an article on that a few years ago and if I am able to reloacate it I will bring it to the board. Go IDWS!!!
Hector777: You are no doubt correct that both all the shares that I own and all that you own in reality do not exist. I have been thinking about ordering some which I plan to keep long term in certificate form just to take a few more out of the market. Firstly, I want my spinoff shares and secondly if offers are being considered for the homeland security portion of the business as per todays PR the sell price for any of my shares just went up. This has already been driven down from a much higher price as you point out even as the company has grown and expanded. Things should get more interesting with each passing day. All imho. Go IDWS!!!
Nice PR! I liked this when I bought my first shares at .23. Since then I have been able to accumulate over 6 times as many shares at substantially less cost per share . Thanks to whoever has been selling them to me and I will be happy to sell some of them back to you when "the price is right". Go IDWS!!!
After the smear campaign, today is the day for the shorts to pull out every trick in the book. If they are unable to implant enough fear to cause selling their campaign will have been a total failure. Both the longs and the shorts know this situation is coming to a head. All imho. Go IDWS!!!
crossbow: This latest smear tactic speaks loudly as to the desperation of those who are short. A tiny float of 2.5 million shares which is way oversold with a day of reckoning fast approaching was no doubt the cause. Event driven PR's should be coming this week if everything is on schedule and both those long and those short know it. All imho.
Go IDWS!!!
FinancialWire Monday - NASD/OTC
October 3, 2005 (FinancialWire) Today, the NASD takes control of the over-the-counter bulletin board from Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ), and Nasdaq’s SmallCap market has been renamed Nasdaq Capital Market, moving companies such as Beacon Power (NASDAQ: BCON) on the Regulation SHO threshold list to a new market, and such companies as First Montauk Financial (OTCBB: FMFK) directly under the purview of the NASD, which has recently launched a regulatory offensive against illegal and manipulative naked short selling.
At the same time, despite the efforts of data extractors such as Global Securities, a division of Thomson (NYSE: TOC), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the leading proponent of corporate transparency, has been identified at the same time as the leading opponent of government transparency.
The SEC has refused public information requests more often than almost every government agency and department, including the CIA and Pentagon, according to a survey.
Of 3,830 information petitions received from lawyers, investors and others under the Freedom of Information Act, the SEC has granted only 34%. The survey was conducted by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. The SEC’s year-end backlog of 8,635 requests was also larger than all except four agencies.
“The SEC has never applied the same standards to itself that it applies to the companies it regulates,” Edward Fleischman, a former SEC commissioner and now senior counsel at the Linklaters law firm, was quoted as saying.
“This is an agency that has never done very much disclosure about itself.'”
According to the survey, the CIA and the Department of Defense, by contract, fulfilled half of the information requests. The Pentagon had received 77,256 requests.
The SEC did not decide on 93% of over 9,000 requests received in its last fiscal year, and is totally jammed up now.
Global Securities Information said it had filed over 9,000 FOIAs and now has a backlog of over 6,000 pending.
SEC speakers have recently talked about corporate governance filtering throughout a public company according to the “tone at the top.” The secretive tone at the top appears to be filtering through two of its regulated SROs, NASD and the NYSE, to their co-owned Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
The DTCC., reportedly itself under NASD scrutiny for its controversial stock lending program that some, including an 11 state state North American Securities Adminitrators Association task force headed by Connecticut’s chief securities officer, and former NASAA president, apparently believe facilitates the illegal naked shorting industry, has been very secretive about the status of shares for individual companies, stonewalling even companies’ efforts to determine their true ownerships and short positions.
Brokerage and clearing firms are apparently under intense NASD pressure to settle failed short trades in Regulation SHO threshold securities or have their clearance firms do it for them at possible substantive losses.
The NASD is in turn acting under political and regulatory pressure from the 11-state task force.
Lambiase had publicly asked the SEC to “fix” the DTCC “problem” as it was considering the adoption of Regulation SHO last year, but taking a page from numerous U.S. Senators, he and other state regulators have grown tired of waiting for Regulation SHO to do more than simply shine a magnification light on the massive fails-to-deliver problem.
DealFlow said NASD officials are concerned that stock loan programs are being used to settle failed short trades in Reg SHO threshold stocks, which must be closed out voluntarily or through forced buy-ins within 13 days. “The regulators are concerned that the stock loan are being used instead of market purchases to provide the shares needed for settlement, creating new transactions that will ultimately fail to settle as well.”
The state regulators, DealFlow said, have been “highly critical of the SEC's decision to ‘grandfather’ settlement failures resulting from naked short sales up to levels that trigger threshold status under Reg SHO.”
NAASA was particularly concerned about Regulation SHO, because it excluded the small cap market from any meaningful regulation. “NASAA said the proposal included replacing the so-called ‘tick test’ with a rule that would provide a uniform price test using the "consolidated best bid" as the reference point for permissible short sales. This, however, would not address problems relating to the naked short selling of smaller, less liquid securities, because , NASAA argued, the requirement of the consolidated best bids meant it could not be applied to securities that were not subject to real-time consolidated quotes. That included Nasdaq Small Cap, OTCBB, and Pink Sheet securities.
NASAA also questioned the wisdom of grandfathering settlement failures under the threshold level, asking why the SEC was willing to permit significant settlement failures at all.”
“While there are instances when settlement may be legitimately delayed, existing regulations provide for extensions for settlement. If the Commission continues to allow settlement failures, it may well facilitate the harm that the proposal is designed to remedy,” Lambiase warned the SEC.
According to DealFlow, Lambiase urged the SEC to reconsider its stance regarding the role of the stock borrow program operated by the Depository Trust Corp. (DTC). NASAA wrote that as a threshold matter, NASAA believes that the Commission should explicitly prohibit the DTC from lending more shares of a security than it actually holds. The utility of the overall proposed rule would be severely impaired unless the Commission undertakes to implement such a prohibition."
Brent Baker, an attorney with Woodbury Kesler in Salt Lake City and counsel to naked shorting target and eight-month old threshold list company Overstock.com, previously spent 14 years at the SEC, including time in the Division of Enforcement, was quoted as saying he believes that the SEC tried, with Regulation SHO, to put "their finger in the dike" but failed.
“Three or four years ago naked short selling was being perpetrated by promoters in the micro cap world," he says. "they would publish 'exposes' on the Internet... and they would bring pressure on these little companies."
“However, short selling has changed,” noted DealFlow. He believes the SEC does not realize that abusive short selling practices have been adopted by others and are now built into business models of large, mainstream hedge funds.
Meanwhile, the NY Post has reported that traders in Nasdaq stocks are racing to beat a rumored regulatory deadline to close out their positions — or take huge losses as clearing firms do it for them.
“Naked short sales are trades executed without borrowing stock beforehand. Naked short sellers can overwhelm an orderly trading market, since unlike traditional short sellers, there is technically no limit to how much stock can be sold short illegally, noted the Post.
The Post also reported recently that the NASD and numerous state securities regulators, led by Ralph Lambiase of Connecticut's Division of Securities and Business Investments, have vowed to increase scrutiny of naked short sales.
“A buy-in is the worst possible development for a short-seller, since he has to accept any price given,” it stated.
It seems that everytime the DTCC, which is also the target of numerous lawsuits brought by failed companies and a scorching expose in Investment Dealers Digest, gets under pressure, it begins striking out blindly in all directions. FinancialWire can often determine when the heat has been turned up because it is among the media, also thought to have included Dateline NBC, that begins to receive threats from the organization.
In February, the DTCC interfered with FinancialWire’s distribution to Investors Business Daily, and in the past week it sought once more to interfere with another distribution, saying that FinancialWire receives monies for its editorial coverage of the naked short selling issue.
Marshal Shichtman, Esq., attorney for FinancialWire, has been in touch with Proskauer Rose, the outside counsel for the DTCC, warning it of slander, tortuous interference with FinancialWire’s business and because the DTCC is owned by two SROs, the NASD and the NYSE, of First Amendment violations.
Shichtman will be similarly warning the SROs and the directors of the DTCC of what he terms their risks associated with the ruthless, reckless and irresponsible actions of their clearance entity.
In a letter to constituent investor advocate Dave Patch, whose persistence in criticizing Federal regulators over the past several years for shareholder losses at the hands of illegal manipulators was at times a lone quest, often covered only by FinancialWire, Connecticut Division of Securities Director Ralph A. Lambiase, the immediate past president of the North American Securities Administrators Association outlined for the first time the efforts a “working group” of state regulators have been undertaking to assail abusive market practices that Lambiase said has been directly responsible for “an unmistakable loss of investor confidence by the arguably millions of investors who have lost their monies.”
It was an unusual move by Lambiase to outline the states’ enforcement plans in a letter to Patch, who has been vilified and scorned by many top regulators and institutions for his efforts, which includes the maintenance of a website, http://www.investigatethesec.com .
Lambiase said that his efforts, and efforts of others, such as Tanya Solov, Director of the Illinois Securities Department, Tanya Durkee, Deputy Commissioner, Vermont Department of Securities, and Rex A. Staples, General Counsel for NASAA, was stimulated by Patch, and an ever-growing group of concerned citizens who have “continued to champion the issue of reform in the naked short selling area for so long,” and added that it has been those grassroots efforts that constitute the “primary reason we are beginning to see reform of any sort.” Lambiase was clear in stating that it is “your determination and persistence in seeing that this wrong is righted is in part responsible for my interest, as well as that of other state regulators.”
Lambiase, whose initial letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated that the SEC needs to look at the role of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. in allowing these abuse practices to continue, said that it seems “clear that had the SRO’s and the SEC exercised greater diligence in enforcing pre-existing rules, Reg SHO would likely have been unnecessary.”
He said his working group has begun meeting with SRO’s and issuers alike, and that it will “continue to exert substantial effort to remedy the remaining abusive practices in naked short selling until we are confident at the state level that the companines in our communities and citizens that invest in them will no longer be the possible targets of abusive naked short sellers.”
It had been previously rumored that the reason the NASD has been issuing subpoenas to a dozen or more brokerages over their “fails to deliver” and their failures to enforce buy-ins is due to those regulating at the Federal level not wanting to be trumped again by a state investigation such as occurred in several Spitzer reform efforts.
Lambiase so far appears to be taking the posture that the state group is ready to step in if the Federal regulators do not, thus “inspiring” the current efforts rumored to be occurring at the Federal level.
To make the point, he told Patch in the letter obtained by FinancialWire that “there remains a substantial distance between REG SHO and the ultimate goal of including substantive protections for small business issuers.”
It is these small businesses in our communities, Lambiase pointed out, “who take entrepreneurial risks to grow their companies through listings on the OTCBB and Pink Sheets. These small businesses not only provide employment for the residents of their communities, but also offer the general public the opportunity to invest in local businesses with promising products or services.
“While it may be true that a number of small companies lack the financial depth to succeed, they are nonetheless entitled to succeed or fail by their own honest business decisions and not as a result of the corrupt acts of abusive short sellers.
In what some believe is another swipe at the secretive DTCC, he said that “without transparency, we cannot, as yet, precisely identify each small business that failed as a direct result of abusinve naked short selling nor quantify the exact number of jobs lost to our local economies when these companies are forced to close their doors.”
In what is an unmistakable prod to the SEC, Lambiase said that institution is “moving slowly forward as Reg SHO in its current state is studied and debated seemingly ad infinitum. While slight modifications to the existing Rule may result from such an approach, a far more threatening pattern of abuse is certain to continue unless wholesale reforms are made to remedy the concerns of the small business community.”
He said that even Congress, whose members have also called the SEC on the carpet for the slow progress associated with Reg SHO may in fact be missing the point that “abusive short selling poses a direct threat to the economic well being of small business and the entire community.”
The 11-state task force reportedly was in serious strategy sessions a few weeks ago.
The New York Post quoted one regulator as saying there is “an epidemic” of naked shorting. Regulation SHO has made that evident for the world to see. Numerous U.S. Senators have called the Regulation fully ineffective, and have repeatedly called upon the SEC Commissioners to get the practice under control.
The Post said that an SEC official confirmed to it “that no complaints have been brought in the nine months since Regulation SHO went into effect.”
It quoted one state securities regulator, Bill Reilly of Florida, as saying he expects the increased effort will result in more voluntary compliance from dealers, as well as enforcement activity.
That may or may not resolve the DTCC “problem.” Recently a stock transfer agent, Transfer Online Inc., had asked then-SEC Chair William Donaldson to put a stop to the control the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and Automatic Data Processing (NYSE: ADP) are fast gaining over the transfer business, and to demand DTCC transparency.
Excerpts from the letter, posted at http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/LettersToEditor/1012.html , states: “Over the years as the amount of shares held at DTC has increased it has become more and more difficult to determine who owns the shares, who is trading them and if the trading is proper. This trend, and the resulting problems I will detail below, continues to increase because a minority of the total number of shareholders are reflected on the books and records of the corporation, most activity takes place behind the wall of ownership that is designated as Cede & Co. and neither the company nor the transfer agent has any access to the underlying information.
“Furthermore, DTC recently managed to put through a rule change (Release No. 34-50758A; File No.S7-24-04) that prohibits a transfer agent from representing any company who seeks to withdraw from the DTC system. This change effectively leaves companies with no voice or choice in the management of their stock and their ability to have any transparency as to what is actually taking place in the market in regard to their stock.
“I receive calls from companies seeking information as they watch millions of shares trade in a single day, who watch their share price decrease in value and who have no access to information regarding who is behind the trading of these shares, or if in fact the trades are at all legitimate. As the system now operates, most companies have a large percentage of shares on their books registered to Cede & Co.
“Given the importance of shareholder voting and communication one would assume that the same requirements placed on transfer agents as to accuracy and reporting would be placed on ADP and Cede & Co. as they usually hold or service the majority of the shares owned in any given company.
“I have found; however, that when presented with the tabulation reports from ADP the share totals they report sometimes exceed the total number of shares outstanding for the company. Let me restate this because it is a very important part of my concern about a system that is more and more headed in the direction of increased control by DTC. The shares presented by ADP, that are the shares voted by the brokers on behalf of the shareholders for whom they hold accounts, EXCEED when added to the shareholders of record the total number of shares outstanding.
“Where are these extra shares coming from? Why are there no controls on the number of shares held in the nominee name Cede & Co. vs. the ownership on the books and records of the brokers and why is the company not privy to any information unless it pays whatever fees it is told it must pay by the organizations that control the data?
“In fact, as the system is evolving, DTC is de facto becoming the largest transfer agent in the industry even though it is an organization formed by and working for the interests of the brokerage community. If, ultimately, the S.E.C. is in place to protect investors then this issue can not be ignored because in the end when the market is completely under the control of the brokers and the organizations that represent them then the market can neither be transparent nor fair.”
The DTCC actions in the StockGate mire are the most serious, if not notorious since the agent of two SROs, the New York Stock Exchange and NASD is also peopled by some 21 directors whose companies, such as Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER), State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), are unlikely to support the DTCC in its media censorship.
DTCC board members include Michael C. Bodson, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD); Gary Bullock, Global Head of Logistics, Infrastructure, UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS); Stephen P. Casper, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, Inc.; Jill M. Considine,Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC);
Also, Paul F. Costello, President, Business Services Group, Wachovia Securities (NYSE: WB); John W. Cummings, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Technology & Services, Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER); Donald F. Donahue, Chief Operating Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Norman Eaker, General Partner, Edward Jones; George Hrabovsky, President, Alliance Global Investors Service; Catherine R. Kinney, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, New York Stock Exchange; Thomas J. McCrossan, Executive Vice President, State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT); Bradley Abelow, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS); Jonathan E. Beyman, Chief Information Officer, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH); and Frank J. Bisignano, Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, Citigroup / Solomon Smith Barney's Corporate Investment Bank (NYSE: C), Eileen K. Murray, Managing Director, Credit Suisse First Boston (NYSE: CSR); James P. Palermo, Vice Chairman, Mellon Financial Corporation (NYSE: MEL); Thomas J. Perna, Senior Executive Vice President, Financial Companies Services Sector of The Bank of New York (NYSE: BNY); Ronald Purpora, Chief Executive Officer, Garban LLC; Douglas Shulman, President, Regulatory Services and Operations, NASD; and Thompson M. Swayne, Executive Vice President, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM).
For up-to-the-minute news, features and links click on http://www.financialwire.net
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My shares still show up at JM Scott. I look forward to hearing what Ameritrade shares with you. Go IDWS!!!
Hector777: Once that happens all who own shares will be winners as the price will skyrocket imho. The good thing for us is that our wait is short as what has been promised by the company has a "short timeline", pun intended. Go IDWS!!!
In order to get filled I had to raise the buy price to .145.
Go IDWS!!!
Just placed a buy order for 10K at .12. Lets see how anxious they are to fill it. Go IDWS!!!
NASD to handle OTCBB/OTC on Oct1 2005
From swampdog on PB32
Different set of rules now.
Swamp
NASDAQ Transfers OTCBB to the NASD
Summary
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the transfer of the OTCBB/OTC business to the NASD.
The transfer will be effective October 1, 2005.
Contact information
What is changing and how will it affect customers?
As announced in July 2005 in Head Trader Alert #2005-083, in preparation for Exchange Registration, NASDAQ® is planning to transfer the OTCBB/OTC business to the NASD. The SEC has now approved the transfer and it will be effective October 1, 2005.
NASDAQ and NASD have structured this transfer of the businesses to be seamless to the customers of the OTCBB and OTC trade reporting businesses. NASDAQ will continue to provide the technology and connectivity used to carry out the day-to-day functions of the OTCBB and OTC trade reporting while the OTCBB business and OTC trade reporting business will be owned, managed and regulated by the NASD.
Will there be any changes to the way I trade OTCBB securities?
The OTCBB will continue to be accessed through the existing channels: the NASDAQ Workstation II® (available until November 30, 2005) and application programming interface (API) (available until December 31, 2005), the computer-to-computer interface (CTCI), and through NASDAQ’s new offerings in 2005, QIX, NASDAQ’s proprietary connectivity protocol, and the new NASDAQ Workstation. OTCBB market data will also continue to be offered through the Bulletin Board Dissemination ServiceSM (BBDSSM) and the NASDAQ Trade Data Dissemination ServiceSM (TDDSSM).
How will billing change?
Effective with the October activity bill, generated in early November, market participants who quote and/or trade report in OTCBB/OTC securities will receive a separate bill from the NASD for that activity. No other OTCBB-related billing will change (i.e. data feeds).
Where can I go for more information?
Questions regarding the OTCBB transfer may be addressed to:
Karen Peterson at 212.401.8795;
Colleen Lampe at 301.978.8258, or, otcbbfeedback@nasdaq.com;
NASD, Karen Sancilio on 866.749.7096;
NASD, Patricia Casimates on 866-776-0800.
For more information on the retirement of the NWII or the API, please refer to Head Trader Alert #2005-105.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) is a regulated quotation service that displays real-time quotes, last-sale prices, and volume information in over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities. An OTC equity security generally is any equity that is not listed or traded on NASDAQ or a national securities exchange. OTCBB securities include national, regional, and foreign equity issues, warrants, units, ADRs, and Direct Participation Programs (DPPs).
NASDAQ is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Trader website
http://www.otcbb.com/news/2005/GeneralNews/transfer2.stm
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View Replies »
crossbow: These MM's have nothing on David Copperfield. I did not get filled either so I guess they wern't really looking to sell us more shares, rather they were hoping to buy them back on the cheap. Tomorrow is another day and perhaps we will get filled, then again, as each day passes we get closer to the name and cusip change. Go IDWS!!!
laptoptrader: I agree with your thinking completely. Yesterday I added at .155 and if today they want to sell me shares at 30% off that price then I will be a buyer. With a tiny float and a name and cusip change imminent to say nothing of the free spinoff shares coming imho I would be a fool not too. All imho. Go IDWS!!!
Yesterday, I called Premier Funding & Financial Marketing Services @ 480-649-8224 and asked for Heather Kerwin. (Premier has been listed in some PR's and not others.)
Heather was not in when I called but I was asked for my name and number and was told Kelly Black who is the President would call me back, which she did a few hours later.
I inquired as to whether or not they had an investors packet which could be mailed to me. Kelly informed me that they did not yet have all the information that they needed but they were working on obtaining it. She asked for my email address, which I provided, and indicated she would email material to me in the future. Thought I would share my findings since some here have made sinsiter implications which are untrue. Feel free to call yourself and verify that what I have stated is true. Go IDWS!!!
juxtaposenzen: I agree. I added to my position moments ago. Generous fellows we are dealing with as I put a limit of .16 on my order and was filled at .155. lol Go IDWS!!!
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Press Release Source: IDS Worldwide Solutions, Inc.
IDS Worldwide, Inc. Announces Officers and Directors Withdraw 37.5 Million Shares From DTC
Wednesday September 28, 1:38 pm ET
IDS Worldwide, Inc. -- Formerly Known as IDS Worldwide Solutions, Inc. -- Clarifies Name, CUSIP # and Symbol Change
ORLANDO, FL--(MARKET WIRE)--Sep 28, 2005 -- IDS Worldwide, Inc. (Other OTC:IDWS.PK - News) today announced that all Officers and Directors have taken physical possession in Certificate form of all 37.5 Million Shares of Restricted Stock under their ownership. IDS Worldwide, Inc. (http://www.ids-worldwide.com) has taken this action to quell unsubstantiated rumors that have been circulating that Officers and Directors in whole or part have leveraged these holdings by entering into buy-sell and/or loan agreements with fund providers. IDS has rejected every offer from these "Loan/Hedge Funds" that have requested discounted "Free Trading Shares" as it would adversely affect current common stock shareholders.
ADVERTISEMENT
All shares issued to Officers and Directors were restricted shares, the Officers and Directors as a group have never been issued any free trading shares and this 37.5 Million Shares pulled from the DTC on 9/27/05 represents every single share the group had been issued.
IDS Worldwide, Inc. further clarifies the current timetable for the mandatory surrender of all stock under the old CUSIP number, name and new symbol. IDS Worldwide, Inc. has been issued a new CUSIP Number and has filed with the State of Delaware its Restated Articles of Incorporation including the Board of Directors Resolution for the name change to IDS Worldwide, Inc. IDS is awaiting the certified copy of the Restated Articles of Incorporation back from the State of Delaware and upon receipt will forward this document along with the new CUSIP Number to NASD for the new symbol change.
Current shareholders of IDS Worldwide Common Stock (IDWS) will not have to take any action as each brokerage with stockholders on the official transfer agent ledger will be notified of these changes. Only clients of these brokerages who have "borrowed stock" they did not own in their own accounts will have to purchase stock in the open market in order to surrender the certificates to receive the new stock to balance their positions. IDS does not have an exact date the new symbol will be issued and therefore cannot give any advance notice of the day brokerages will be notified of the mandatory call of the old stock. However, IDS has been advised by the agencies involved that it should be completed shortly.
For further information: http://www.ids-worldwide.com and http://www.995ad.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this release that are forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, or other factors which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as the effect of general economic and market conditions, entry into markets with vigorous competition, market acceptance of new products and services, continued acceptance of existing products and services, technological shifts, and delays in product development and related product release schedules, any of which may cause revenues and income to fall short of anticipated levels. All information in this release is as of the date of this release. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company's expectations.
Contact:
Contact:
IDS Worldwide, Inc., Orlando
info@ids-worldwide.com
Hector: The search by zip code works great. I did a search using my zip this morning and now am able to determine which dealers in my town are using 995ad.com. Nice to see the upgrades to the site continuing. Go IDWS!!!
When I just did a generic search under used cars this is the number which came up:"565500 Ad(s) found. Showing 1 of 10."
Now I have a question that perhaps someone here can answer.
The 9/6 PR regarding the repurchase of shares suggests investors contact Heather Kerwin @ Premier Funding & Financial Marketing Services LLC @ (480) 649-8224
The 9/15 PR regarding the name change and cusip number change suggests contact with IDS Worldwide Solutions, Inc.
William Scott @ 407-478-4020 ext. 202
I called Mr. Scott and left a message in his voicemail a few days ago and he has not called me back. Has anyone here spoken with him? Why the contact differences in the 2 PR's only a few days apart?
Interesting reading here:
StockGate: Investigations Said To Center On Depository Trust and Clearing Practices
September 26, 2005 (FinancialWire) Up to 35 brokerages and clearning firms, including Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD), Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), and UBS Paine Webber (NYSE: UBS) at the top to regional outfits are apparently under intense NASD pressure to settle failed short trades in Regulation SHO threshold securities or have their clearance firms do it for them at possible substantive losses.
The NASD is in turn acting under political and regulatory pressure from the 11-state North American Association of Securities Administrators task force headed by Connecticut’s Ralph Lambiase, a sharp critic of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., whose controversial “stock borrow program” is said by DealFlow to be considered by the regulators as a key facilitator of naked short sales.
Lambiase had publicly asked the SEC to “fix” the DTCC “problem” as it was considering the adoption of Regulation SHO last year, but taking a page from numerous U.S. Senators, he and other state regulators have grown tired of waiting for Regulation SHO to do more than simply shine a magnification light on the massive fails-to-deliver problem.
DealFlow said NASD officials are concerned that stock loan programs are being used to settle failed short trades in Reg SHO threshold stocks, which must be closed out voluntarily or through forced buy-ins within 13 days. “The regulators are concerned that the stock loan are being used instead of market purchases to provide the shares needed for settlement, creating new transactions that will ultimately fail to settle as well.”
The state regulators, DealFlow said, have been “highly critical of the SEC's decision to ‘grandfather’ settlement failures resulting from naked short sales up to levels that trigger threshold status under Reg SHO.”
NAASA was particularly concerned about Regulation SHO, because it excluded the small cap market from any meaningful regulation. “NASAA said the proposal included replacing the so-called ‘tick test’ with a rule that would provide a uniform price test using the "consolidated best bid" as the reference point for permissible short sales. This, however, would not address problems relating to the naked short selling of smaller, less liquid securities, because , NASAA argued, the requirement of the consolidated best bids meant it could not be applied to securities that were not subject to real-time consolidated quotes. That included Nasdaq Small Cap, OTCBB, and Pink Sheet securities.
NASAA also questioned the wisdom of grandfathering settlement failures under the threshold level, asking why the SEC was willing to permit significant settlement failures at all.”
“while there are instances when settlement may be legitimately delayed, existing regulations provide for extensions for settlement. If the Commission continues to allow settlement failures, it may well facilitate the harm that the proposal is designed to remedy,” Lambiase warned the SEC.
According to DealFlow, Lambiase urged the SEC to reconsider its stance regarding the role of the stock borrow program operated by the Depository Trust Corp. (DTC). NASAA wrote that as a threshold matter, NASAA believes that the Commission should explicitly prohibit the DTC from lending more shares of a security than it actually holds. The utility of the overall proposed rule would be severely impaired unless the Commission undertakes to implement such a prohibition."
Brent Baker, an attorney with Woodbury Kesler in Salt Lake City and counsel to naked shorting target and eight-month old threshold list company Overstock.com, previously spent 14 years at the SEC, including time in the Division of Enforcement, was quoted as saying he believes that the SEC tried, with Regulation SHO, to put "their finger in the dike" but failed.
“Three or four years ago naked short selling was being perpetrated by promoters in the micro cap world," he says. "they would publish 'exposes' on the Internet... and they would bring pressure on these little companies."
“However, short selling has changed,” noted DealFlow. He believes the SEC does not realize that abusive short selling practices have been adopted by others and are now built into business models of large, mainstream hedge funds.
The business model has proven to be very lucrative.
The Top 400 richest Americans now includes these hedge fund gadzillionaires:
83 Simons, James H 2,700 67 East Setauket, NY Hedge funds
93 Cohen, Steven A 2,500 49 Greenwich, CT Hedge funds
93 Kovner, Bruce 2,500 60 New York, NY Hedge funds
133 Jones, Paul Tudor II 2,000 51 Greenwich, CT Hedge funds
133 Milken, Michael Robert 2,000 59 Los Angeles, CA Investments
164 Druckenmiller, Stanley 1,800 53 New York, NY Hedge funds
207 Griffin, Kenneth C 1,500 36 Chicago, IL Hedge funds
207 Ziff, Daniel Morton 1,500 33 New York, NY Inheritance, hedge funds
207 Ziff, Dirk Edward 1,500 41 New York, NY Inheritance, hedge funds
207 Ziff, Robert David 1,500 39 New York, NY Inheritance, hedge funds
346 Bacon, Louis Moore 1,000 49 London, United Kingdom
384 Cayne, James 900 71 New York, NY Bear Stearns
Meanwhile, the NY Post has reported that traders in Nasdaq stocks are racing to beat a rumored regulatory deadline to close out their positions or take huge losses as clearing firms do it for them.
“Naked short sales are trades executed without borrowing stock beforehand. Naked short sellers can overwhelm an orderly trading market, since unlike traditional short sellers, there is technically no limit to how much stock can be sold short illegally, noted the Post.
The Post also reported recently that the NASD and numerous state securities regulators, led by Ralph Lambiase of Connecticut's Division of Securities and Business Investments, have vowed to increase scrutiny of naked short sales.
“A buy-in is the worst possible development for a short-seller, since he has to accept any price given,” it stated.
It seems that everytime the DTCC, which is also the target of numerous lawsuits brought by failed companies and a scorching expose in Investment Dealers Digest, gets under pressure, it begins striking out blindly in all directions. FinancialWire can often determine when the heat has been turned up because it is among the media, also thought to have included Dateline NBC, that begins to receive threats from the organization.
In February, the DTCC interfered with FinancialWire’s distribution to Investors Business Daily, and in the past week it sought once more to interfere with another distribution, saying that FinancialWire receives monies for its editorial coverage of the naked short selling issue.
Marshal Shichtman, Esq., attorney for FinancialWire, has been in touch with Proskauer Rose, the outside counsel for the DTCC, warning it of slander, tortuous interference with FinancialWire’s business and because the DTCC is owned by two SROs, the NASD and the NYSE, of First Amendment violations.
Shichtman will be similarly warning the SROs and the directors of the DTCC of what he terms their risks associated with the ruthless, reckless and irresponsible actions of their clearance entity.
In a letter to constituent investor advocate Dave Patch, whose persistence in criticizing Federal regulators over the past several years for shareholder losses at the hands of illegal manipulators was at times a lone quest, often covered only by FinancialWire, Connecticut Division of Securities Director Ralph A. Lambiase, the immediate past president of the North American Securities Administrators Association outlined for the first time the efforts a “working group” of state regulators have been undertaking to assail abusive market practices that Lambiase said has been directly responsible for “an unmistakable loss of investor confidence by the arguably millions of investors who have lost their monies.”
It was an unusual move by Lambiase to outline the states’ enforcement plans in a letter to Patch, who has been vilified and scorned by many top regulators and institutions for his efforts, which includes the maintenance of a website, http://www.investigatethesec.com .
Lambiase said that his efforts, and efforts of others, such as Tanya Solov, Director of the Illinois Securities Department, Tanya Durkee, Deputy Commissioner, Vermont Department of Securities, and Rex A. Staples, General Counsel for NASAA, was stimulated by Patch, and an ever-growing group of concerned citizens who have “continued to champion the issue of reform in the naked short selling area for so long,” and added that it has been those grassroots efforts that constitute the “primary reason we are beginning to see reform of any sort.” Lambiase was clear in stating that it is “your determination and persistence in seeing that this wrong is righted is in part responsible for my interest, as well as that of other state regulators.”
Lambiase, whose initial letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated that the SEC needs to look at the role of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. in allowing these abuse practices to continue, said that it seems “clear that had the SRO’s and the SEC exercised greater diligence in enforcing pre-existing rules, Reg SHO would likely have been unnecessary.”
He said his working group has begun meeting with SRO’s and issuers alike, and that it will “continue to exert substantial effort to remedy the remaining abusive practices in naked short selling until we are confident at the state level that the companines in our communities and citizens that invest in them will no longer be the possible targets of abusive naked short sellers.”
It had been previously rumored that the reason the NASD has been issuing subpoenas to a dozen or more brokerages over their “fails to deliver” and their failures to enforce buy-ins is due to those regulating at the Federal level not wanting to be trumped again by a state investigation such as occurred in several Spitzer reform efforts.
Lambiase so far appears to be taking the posture that the state group is ready to step in if the Federal regulators do not, thus “inspiring” the current efforts rumored to be occurring at the Federal level.
To make the point, he told Patch in the letter obtained by FinancialWire that “there remains a substantial distance between REG SHO and the ultimate goal of including substantive protections for small business issuers.”
It is these small businesses in our communities, Lambiase pointed out, “who take entrepreneurial risks to grow their companies through listings on the OTCBB and Pink Sheets. These small businesses not only provide employment for the residents of their communities, but also offer the general public the opportunity to invest in local businesses with promising products or services.
“While it may be true that a number of small companies lack the financial depth to succeed, they are nonetheless entitled to succeed or fail by their own honest business decisions and not as a result of the corrupt acts of abusive short sellers.
In what some believe is another swipe at the secretive DTCC, he said that “without transparency, we cannot, as yet, precisely identify each small business that failed as a direct result of abusinve naked short selling nor quantify the exact number of jobs lost to our local economies when these companies are forced to close their doors.”
In what is an unmistakable prod to the SEC, Lambiase said that institution is “moving slowly forward as Reg SHO in its current state is studied and debated seemingly ad infinitum. While slight modifications to the existing Rule may result from such an approach, a far more threatening pattern of abuse is certain to continue unless wholesale reforms are made to remedy the concerns of the small business community.”
He said that even Congress, whose members have also called the SEC on the carpet for the slow progress associated with Reg SHO may in fact be missing the point that “abusive short selling poses a direct threat to the economic well being of small business and the entire community.”
The 11-state task force reportedly was in serious strategy sessions a few weeks ago.
The New York Post quoted one regulator as saying there is “an epidemic” of naked shorting. Regulation SHO has made that evident for the world to see. Numerous U.S. Senators have called the Regulation fully ineffective, and have repeatedly called upon the SEC Commissioners to get the practice under control.
The Post said that an SEC official confirmed to it “that no complaints have been brought in the nine months since Regulation SHO went into effect.”
It quoted one state securities regulator, Bill Reilly of Florida, as saying he expects the increased effort will result in more voluntary compliance from dealers, as well as enforcement activity.
That may or may not resolve the DTCC “problem.” Recently a stock transfer agent, Transfer Online Inc., had asked then-SEC Chair William Donaldson to put a stop to the control the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and Automatic Data Processing (NYSE: ADP) are fast gaining over the transfer business, and to demand DTCC transparency.
Excerpts from the letter, posted at http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/LettersToEditor/1012.html , states: “Over the years as the amount of shares held at DTC has increased it has become more and more difficult to determine who owns the shares, who is trading them and if the trading is proper. This trend, and the resulting problems I will detail below, continues to increase because a minority of the total number of shareholders are reflected on the books and records of the corporation, most activity takes place behind the wall of ownership that is designated as Cede & Co. and neither the company nor the transfer agent has any access to the underlying information.
“Furthermore, DTC recently managed to put through a rule change (Release No. 34-50758A; File No.S7-24-04) that prohibits a transfer agent from representing any company who seeks to withdraw from the DTC system. This change effectively leaves companies with no voice or choice in the management of their stock and their ability to have any transparency as to what is actually taking place in the market in regard to their stock.
“I receive calls from companies seeking information as they watch millions of shares trade in a single day, who watch their share price decrease in value and who have no access to information regarding who is behind the trading of these shares, or if in fact the trades are at all legitimate. As the system now operates, most companies have a large percentage of shares on their books registered to Cede & Co.
“Given the importance of shareholder voting and communication one would assume that the same requirements placed on transfer agents as to accuracy and reporting would be placed on ADP and Cede & Co. as they usually hold or service the majority of the shares owned in any given company.
“I have found; however, that when presented with the tabulation reports from ADP the share totals they report sometimes exceed the total number of shares outstanding for the company. Let me restate this because it is a very important part of my concern about a system that is more and more headed in the direction of increased control by DTC. The shares presented by ADP, that are the shares voted by the brokers on behalf of the shareholders for whom they hold accounts, EXCEED when added to the shareholders of record the total number of shares outstanding.
“Where are these extra shares coming from? Why are there no controls on the number of shares held in the nominee name Cede & Co. vs. the ownership on the books and records of the brokers and why is the company not privy to any information unless it pays whatever fees it is told it must pay by the organizations that control the data?
“In fact, as the system is evolving, DTC is de facto becoming the largest transfer agent in the industry even though it is an organization formed by and working for the interests of the brokerage community. If, ultimately, the S.E.C. is in place to protect investors then this issue can not be ignored because in the end when the market is completely under the control of the brokers and the organizations that represent them then the market can neither be transparent nor fair.”
The DTCC actions in the StockGate mire are the most serious, if not notorious since the agent of two SROs, the New York Stock Exchange and NASD is also peopled by some 21 directors whose companies, such as Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER), State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), are unlikely to support the DTCC in its media censorship.
DTCC board members include Michael C. Bodson, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD); Gary Bullock, Global Head of Logistics, Infrastructure, UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS); Stephen P. Casper, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, Inc.; Jill M. Considine,Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC);
Also, Paul F. Costello, President, Business Services Group, Wachovia Securities (NYSE: WB); John W. Cummings, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Technology & Services, Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER); Donald F. Donahue, Chief Operating Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Norman Eaker, General Partner, Edward Jones; George Hrabovsky, President, Alliance Global Investors Service; Catherine R. Kinney, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, New York Stock Exchange; Thomas J. McCrossan, Executive Vice President, State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT); Bradley Abelow, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS); Jonathan E. Beyman, Chief Information Officer, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH); and Frank J. Bisignano, Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, Citigroup / Solomon Smith Barney's Corporate Investment Bank (NYSE: C), Eileen K. Murray, Managing Director, Credit Suisse First Boston (NYSE: CSR); James P. Palermo, Vice Chairman, Mellon Financial Corporation (NYSE: MEL); Thomas J. Perna, Senior Executive Vice President, Financial Companies Services Sector of The Bank of New York (NYSE: BNY); Ronald Purpora, Chief Executive Officer, Garban LLC; Douglas Shulman, President, Regulatory Services and Operations, NASD; and Thompson M. Swayne, Executive Vice President, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM).
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Datatech: Thanks for spending the time that you did proving that our entrance into China, as announced, is not only possible but probable. The fact that we have professional liars posting here regularly is significant. Obviously their job is to try and steer new investors away on one hand and cause existing shareholders to sell early and cheap on the other. 995 showing steady improvement and traffic gains is very encouraging to those of us who actually OWN shares.
Go IDWS!!!
Hector777: Thanks for sharing. I suspect many are sitting on the sidelines waiting for that event to take place. Get things running well here and then to China and beyond. We have lots of news to look forward to including details on the 995 spinoff. All imho. Go IDWS!!!
YankeeAce: I agree. I think many of us are accumlating on dips and waiting for the company to prove itself. The proof for me that we have a huge winner here will be the day the website is completed. From my perspective we are fortunate to be in this early and this cheaply. The nice thing about this is we will know so quickly. I would hate to be short here with what has been PR'd in the last couple of weeks coming at me like a freight train. All imho. Go IDWS!!!
shadowwatch2003: Your understanding of SHO is incorrect. We will not appear on the SHO list until after we are fully reporting.
Issuance of the 995ad.com spinoff shares should act as a trigger as those shares are to trade on the OTCBB according to the PR. SHO thus far has proved to be a complete failure so far, anyway. You have stated that you have assumed that all the information in the PR's is false. Conversely, what if all the information in those PR's is 100% true? Those maintaining a long position would have an incredible bargain while those holding short positions would be in a desperate situation, wouldn't you agree? The good news for both the longs and the shorts is that we will know with certainty in the next two weeks which side is going to win big. I have made my wager (your negative posts caused me to double the size of my position) and will now comfortably sit back and wait for facts. All imho. Go IDWS!!!
Just found this thread today and am appreciative of the posts on Market Maker manipulation and shorting especially the informative posts on the DTC. I invite you to take a look at PCBME where a large shareholders group of which I am a part has a cert pulling campaign underway. The tradable float has been shorted at least 3 times over IMHO. We are expecting a paper call soon. I have posted the link to this site on Raging Bull so don't be surprised if more PCBMers show up here soon. Thanks again for this great site. AlanC