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I’m truly disgusted with him and this stock right now, but I can’t ignore his success in growing the business and revenues.
Yes, there is no Verus without Anshu. This would still be an RBIZ shell
Why let this happen is my question? If someone tried taking my company down, I’m kicking, fighting, scratching, and screaming from the mountain tops. Especially if I know who it is and clearly it’s Eagle Equities, LLC. Anshu has to know them because he signed a deal with them and took their money. So oust the guy publicly or show up on his doorstep and tam some sense into him. That’s just me
Share price is basically the same price Anshu is paying for his warrants or real close to it. Maybe that was the goal from a pissed off investor...whatever the reason, this is as good a buying opportunity as I have ever seen, for anyone who is looking for a buy and hold
Shouldn’t be a surprise as we already know what he’s getting warrants to purchase up to 20%. He was always going to own 20%, they should have just given them to him when he was hired, but instead they wanted him to earn them. It turns out that structure was detrimental to showing a profit in the short run as his share comp increased alongside revenue and would have until he owned 20%. And I don’t have a problem with that so much, as they are warrants that he has to purchase. At these prices, it’s basically open market value. He is not getting a discount at these prices. The company should have just purchased them in the open market and given them to him. That would have been win-win for all of us...
Oh!!! So that’s what the newest notes are for...Nice, the margins must be a handsome 99%, lol...for the record, this is all sarcasm
Garnock has no connection to Eagle.
Anshu could have the connection from his days at Blue Capital, or more likely that Eagle is a predatory lender and mass markets his toxic financing for companies that need immediate money. The $2 mil needs to pay off all or most of these notes to decrease the risk of the company for traditional financing, imo. This would also make them more attractive to big money, imo.
First off, welcome! Decent odds, but its not a guarantee and it’s not the OTC RS that we’ve all grown accustomed to. They will only do it for an uplist, AND only after the shareholder equity meets the uplist requirements, which it’s no where near right now. They authorized a R/S last year and never acted on it, if that tells you anything. They let it expire and so they would have to reauthorize a R/S in order for that to happen. It’s not on the table as of right now.
R/S‘s are typically a negative because they are associated with dilution, especially in the OTC. Verus is not a dilution play, and while I’m going to get flack for saying this, it’s 100% true. I can get more into more detail if needed and I’m sure the board will, but Verus does not issue themselves shares to sell into the open market...ever! This has never happened to my knowledge and the A/S is no where near maxed and it won’t be.
Read, read, read, everything you can from Jan ‘19 to present. Twitter, SEC Filings and lots of posts with opinions here (be careful who you trust). Just click on anyone’s name and check their post history, before you take a post serious. You’ll learn quickly who is genuine and who isn’t. Lots of trust worthy ppl here, but it can be hard to decipher those posts from all the noise. Please let me know if you have any questions. I
have a long position here since fall 2018. I do my best to share facts and DD that I find, as do many others. I am not here to sway you or anyone else in any direction, but just to aid in providing clarity, DD, and my thoughts which I use to make decisions on my own investments. Good luck and welcome!! -C
$VRUS
Ever seen the Replacements? Diff sport but same idea. Let the Minor League players, move up and play. I don’t understand why there is a negotiation anyways. If you want to play and get paid, this is the % of the season left, you get paid the prorated % of salary. How is this hard? This is the problem with Unions...their greedy and irrational, like a toddler that wants candy. They want what they want and care not about the sustainability of the business.
Thank you for your reply. I think Eagle Equity is a POS lender who cares nothing about the companies they lend to. I also came up with the name Yakov D Borenstein, who signed the note on behalf of Eagle Equities, LLC. I think Eagle may be an individual or private investor or a shell for another firm. There is no website for the LLC, that I can find.
There are real people behind every shady situation. I am going to get to the bottom of this and expose this person or persons. Someone out there knows who this is. They can’t remain anonymous on this one. Verus is too high profile to F*** with, without people asking questions and looking into those responsible.
Let’s put Eagle Equities, LLC on notice.
There are 2 Eagle Equities (LLC vs Inc), I made this same mistake at first too. Unfortunately we didn’t get Inc based in Phillipines... we got LLC based in CT, which I believe is a heavy short player. I was in another ticker years ago and watched them do the very same thing while converting, but that company was pre-revenue. I was concerned when I saw this note last summer, but figured this note would get paid off and this wouldn’t be an issue. Driving the price down relentlessly while selling is one thing, but I feel like they are buying at the same time, which would make this a questionable trading scenario. I don’t know if it’s illegal, but certainly questionable and Paulson Investments (PAUL) is doing their dirty work. I feel like the SEC should take a look into these 2 firms trading activities in Verus.
Anyone know who owns Eagle Equities, LLC? That’s that note-holder that converted and has its hooks in Verus right now. Yakov Borenstein is who signed the note, with the title manager. Does anyone know that name or know if he is the owner, or know anything about Eagle Equities, LLC?
Nice!! I added 630k 0078s yesterday. I never thought I would get those. Kudos on the 0076s. I honestly didn’t think we would ever see these prices, and we likely never will again, so I’ll add as many as I can, where I can!
Feels like stealing! These are near Warrant prices!!
$VRUS
I really don’t feel that his salary is out of line for a 4th year CEO turning a 1300% Revenue growth, most of which is in the last year. As far as the stock based comp. he was always going to get to 20%, either by way of 3% per year or 7.5M shares per ea $1Million in revenue generated. It just so happens, that this creates a huge loss on the balance sheet and is preventing us from showing a profit. So just issue the warrants and call it good. It’s not like they are giving them to him. He still has to execute the warrants, which means purchase. So while it’s a discount, at the moment, it’s not much.
I completely agree.
Again...why wouldn’t there be?
I get being frustrated, but what good does it do to bash a stock you own, publicly? Take your frustrations to the company. Email Mark. I’m sure he’s as frustrated as everyone else, but he’s our communication line to Anshu and it’s his job to be the intermediary. How many times has Anshu started a post with “We’ve been getting lots of questions around, XYZ...” and then addresses the issue. They’re listening, so speak up, but in the right direction and tone...please be respectful. Mark is contracted and not part of the decision making, but he’s great at communicating.
I’m not saying, abuse him and totally blow up on him, but get your point across in a way that will matter, because here, it makes no difference, at least, not in a good way, that could spark change. Mark is a great guy and I feel for him right now, but it’s his job to listen and provide feedback and he’s good at it. Anshu hears what Mark hears, and it matters to them, I believe!, which is why he addresses major investor concerns often and publicly.
Personally, I don’t want to feed this noteholder. I think they are pieces of sh*t for taking the conversion only to dump. As far as I’m concerned, we only buy on the BID while the noteholder is selling. I’m staying off the ASK and buying as low as possible, because F*CK them. Yeah this hurts right now, but all those shares we are acquiring at discount, will have an even bigger impact once the irresponsible sell-off ends. IMO
$VRUS
Not true...$820k trial order already filled
I am...I added a bunch of .0078s yesterday. I like buying a dollar for 50 cents or possibly even 25 cents. This will correct itself once the noteholder sells out. I agree it’s been one storm after another though. Super frustrating to say the least.
It’s gotta be close...volume has slowed way down.
Exactly...we can actually thank the noteholder that chose to convert on a bailout clause rather than allow Verus to continue paying the note, only to turn around and dump them all in our lap. Garnock granted them the leeway to correct this, this noteholder didn’t. That’s the risk we take with convertible notes. If you don’t have a lender that’s vested in the company succeeding, they do this to get their money back, not caring what they do to the share price in the process.
But I agree, this is not technically dilution. Its a sell-off
Highly irregular trading going on. Big disparities on Bid/Ask volume with a very thin spread all of the sudden...Could this be the end?
Bid $0.0079
Ask $0.008
Bid/ask size
288.8K x 10K
I think this is one party/broker selling to another at the lowest possible price, both having MM capabilities, picking a choosing which orders get filled. Highly illegal.
I just entered a huge bid and all of the sudden there is no shares selling down there and the bid jumps up, wtf.
Yes, I agree. I think this changes a lot of things going forward. This is not the same Verus. We may see a new order PR’d on Monday. Anshu has a way of putting formalities out on Friday’s to clear the air and then tell more of the story. I think he enjoys surprising the market.
$VRUS
-I have no special knowledge of anything, just thinking out loud. GLTA
Totally agree, and I got your PM, I just can’t respond privately. I have lots of emails like that with him. He used to respond kind of annoyed, but I think he’s starting to get our POV. Obviously it has fallen on def ears though outside of him, HA! Oh well, news is news, I’d rather have it Friday afternoon than not at all. It seems that’s Anshu’s communication day. I think a correction is coming, time will tell, but I can’t see the market ignoring Verus Cares huge orders and high margins!
It seems your feelings hurt anytime anyone comes at you with legit points. I was in no way trying to insult you, it was just a quote that I like, wasn’t saying you are an idiot. I actually think (thought) pretty highly of you, I just disagree with your point of view most of the time. That said, it seems I can’t respond to you about stocks w/o you being offended, so this is probably my last post to you. GLTY
$VRUS
Why wouldn’t there be?
“The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything and the value of nothing” - Phillip Fisher
Never have quoted words been more appropriate. Most trader/flippers just buy/sell tickers, never really knowing the business of the ticker they are (hopefully) profiting off of. Verus is a company that has Revenues growing like a staircase. The stock should reflect the same, but it doesn’t. It has nothing to do with the company or the real market forces. It more has to do with a series of unfortunate events, which is true, like it or not.
The biggest being Monaker. You talk about the downward trend over the last year...when did that start? Right around July, correct? That’s coincidentally the same time that Monaker began selling their position. Monaker is not the only reason, but it certainly excaserbated everything else that followed. If they hadn’t started selling the uptrend would have likely carried right on and the pps could have weathered the smaller storms much better, but when every run is ended short because a large early investor needs to sell, well that looks bad on a chart and causes a chain reaction from those unfamiliar to the real situation. Just look at the chart, they’ve been the bein of the pps for a long time now, which is no fault of Verus’. Monaker needed to liquidate their investments to keep the lights on.
Yes, Verus is not perfect and has made mistakes and a few missteps, but all companies have that. In times of growth, the market will typically shrug those off. It’s been A sort of perfect storm for VRUS pps over the last year. But it’s a young company, still trying to get her legs underneath her. A mature company with lots of years of history can handle missteps and the market only slaps their hand, but a young company, relatively unproven, growing revenues with lots of nay sayers, and in the OTC, with a large investor selling out...this looks really bad from the outside and so traders flee and become chart skeptics w/o ever really knowing the entire story.
So yes, the PPS absolutely matters, but it only matters at the point in which one sells. We all thought we’d be north of $.04 by now, which hasn’t happened, but that doesn’t mean it won’t. The pps is a snap-shot in time. The market always tells the truth in the end, but she will lie to cover her tracks in the short term, which is why short term trends aren’t telling of the real story, and long term trends only tell part of the story.
Long Story, short: the chart is a tool to be utilized when buying and selling, but the value is in the DD and knowing the company by more than its ticker (I’m not saying you do that, but many, many, many, do). I’m not going to live or die by any chart, w/o the DD supporting it. The DD overwhelms it here and screams value! IMO
$VRUS
Lol, I love that you brought in the cinematics for effect! Well played! ~
I kept checking my phone waiting for his response, but it never came, lol...not at all, I went to bed shortly after and didn’t have much time to read up until now. There was some great posting going on today! I’m impressed and sorry I missed most of it. Enjoy the weekend, we’ll see what Monday brings.
$VRUS
Wow! Well said and I completely agree. You are always on point! Thank you!
Dewm, this is impressive! Thank you for sharing and putting things into a very clear perspective. Enjoy the weekend! -C
$VRUS
Just because you keep saying it, doesn’t make it true. It’s a done deal
Par value of a private company means nothing. It’s irrelevant, it holds no true value. $100,000 was negaotiated as the value, so that’s what was paid. The trial order was $820,000 and already collected...Yeah, sounds like a terrible deal (sarcasm). I hate when the 1st deal is 8x the price paid for controlling interest...what say you?
We just want the controlling interest, so that we get the revenues, no one gives a sh!t about the actual value of the manufacturing company. It’s basically an acquired physical asset, that provides us a new product stream. ZC TAM is a private company. The par value of the shares purchased are in Peso’s, but we paid a negotiated $100,000 USD for 51%. Basically it’s irrelevant, as each shares has zero intrinsic value, outside of percent of ownership. There is no market value associated with a private company‘s shares, so an exchange rate would only be applied if the company were sold individually on an open market, (I.e. if they were ever peeled off from Verus as a separate company and taken public or sold off from Verus as an asset. Then the exchange rate may be applied, but outside of that, you guys are talking out of your a$$es. It means nothing other than required verbiage.
ZC TAM is officially majority owned by Verus and is now a Verus subsidiary. Verus recognizes 100% of the ZC TAM revenues!! Time to accept this a public fact! Sorry
$VRUS
What are you talking about? You didn’t read far enough...Go back and the last 32 pages. There are 34 in total, lol.
It says in your post it’s attached as Exhibit 10.1
I disagree with you, which is no surprise...plus, you were hardly the target audience, that I was thinking would appreciate this, when I decided to share it. Anyways, it’s an article on a particular strategy that resonates with me and I hope it resonates with anyone that thinks/invests this way. I even said in my post, “this won’t resonate with everyone”
$VRUS
Here is a great read on “Value Investing.” Longs may be onto something the market is ignoring. Follow your DD intuition and trust your instincts. Don’t be swayed by anything except your own research. Read about Seth Klarman’s strategy, which I believe many of us employ, without labeling it. Seth is a Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager who buys undervalued stocks, often being ridiculed by market analysts and other investors, sound familiar. Says it often takes longer than expected and can be excruciating at times, waiting. His firm has averaged a 19% return since 1982 using this strategy on their portfolio, of which they manage over $30B, so there is something to Value Investing. This is something I have always done, I just never knew it had a label. I think it’s not popular because it’s hard and it’s not instantly gratifying the way that trend trading can be. Plus it’s going against the popular consensus. It’s innovative, outside the box, thinking, which can be lonely at times.
Coincidentally, Warren Buffet, also utilizes this strategy.
I just though we all could use a little confidence in our strategies heading into the weekend. This will not resonate with all, so please only read this if you believe in value investing. This is not a trader strategy, so please hold yourself comments, as I am not the author, just sharing. $VRUS Long and Strong!! I have not sold 1 share, I have in fact added significantly to my position.
Seth Klarman's 3 Secrets to Value Investing
September 4, 2019, 3:02 pm
Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group is one of the most successful hedge funds in the world. Since 1982, its various funds have earned average returns of more than 19%. Today, the firm manages more than $30 billion. Even more incredible, it's reported that the investment team is made up of just 12 people.
What's made the Baupost Group so successful? In 2015, Brian Spector, a senior partner on the verge of retirement, revealed several key insights into the inner workings of the famed hedge fund. At the request of Klarman, Spector wrote a letter to investors detailing his history at the firm.
"Because of his unique perspective and insights, I asked Brian to draft a letter to you that accompanies this letter," Klarman told investors. "He alone determined the content. I hope you find that it furthers your understanding of Baupost."
What was in the letter? Let's dive in.
Value investing isn't for the weak
Value investing can be fun and easy, but often, it's excruciating. By definition, value investing is purchasing an asset for less than it's worth. To do that, an investor must disagree with popular opinion. Value investors are often told they're wrong. They have to take criticisms from seasoned analysts, management teams and even other investors.
Thankfully, over the decades, value investing has proven to be a winning formula. But value stocks can go out of favor for years at a time. Just take a look at the chart below, which suggests value stocks are actually trading at a discount to the market. Not only do value investors have to deal with others telling them they're wrong, but they often are wrong, sometimes for years at a time. Eventually, many are vindicated, but it's a hard road getting there.
Spector provided some insight into how Baupost dealt with "being wrong" during the dot-com bubble. At the time, he was just 25 years old.
"Traditional metrics like cash flow and asset values were being blatantly disregarded by the market in favor of newfound metrics such as eyeballs and clicks," he wrote. "High-tech companies were the darlings in a rapidly rising market while less-sexy value stocks significantly lagged."
In a rare occurrence, Baupost actually lost money during one of the most aggressive bull markets in U.S. history.
When the bubble burst, you would think Baupost would be gloating about staying on the sidelines. Instead, it purchased falling tech stocks as other panicked, and yet again was chided for "being wrong."
"The bear market picked up steam and we found a number of stocks trading near or even below their net cash value. We bought baskets of formerly hot technology stocks that were getting pummeled, despite having good businesses with contracted revenues. Although many of these companies were experiencing negative cash flow, their management teams were shrinking headcount to align to the new economic reality and were successfully lowering or eliminating cash burn. It seemed like shooting fish in a barrel. We were buying cash at a discount with an option that the underlying businesses had real value. All we had to do was wait for that underlying value to be recognized. What could be easier than buying cash at a discount?"
Spector went on to cover one of the most underappreciated downsides of value investing: the mental toll.
"It turns out buying a dollar for 50 cents is a lot harder than it seems. Every day we added to these positions, thinking we were getting an even better bargain than the day before, only to wake up and watch prices drop further. Other respected investors would often comment about how 'value tech' was a 'value trap,' best to be avoided. It was as if the market was having a 'going out of business' sale and we happened to be the only customer who showed up. While both exhilarating and painful at the same time, what I remember most vividly is exhaustion. After countless late nights at the office, I would head home, collapse on my couch and stare at the ceiling. I was unable to read, watch television, or fall asleep. All I could do was worry about what we might have missed in our analysis."
If you want to be a successful value investor like Klarman and his team, it's important to have both investing acumen and courage.
Don't time the market
Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio) once likened market timing to playing poker against the best. More often than not, you're going to lose. The Baupost Group seems to take a similar approach. Over the years, its portfolio has had dramatically different cash balances, anywhere from 0% to 50%.
Today, reports suggest the firm's cash position is roughly 30% of the portfolio. But don't think Klarman is trying to time the market. According to Spector, the cash balance is simply a sign the firm is having a difficult time filling the portfolio with bargains. That may happen to coincide with a frothy market, but the team never makes top-down, market-wide calls. It simply plays with the cards that are dealt.
"Most of the time, we are in periods of haystack investing," Spector wrote. "We sift through lots of investment ideas to find a few decent opportunities. We sell more securities than we buy and our cash reserves begin to build."
During bear markets, when bargains are widely available, Spector said the cash balance naturally shrinks.
"We see distressed sellers, illiquid securities, huge redemptions, and an excess of paranoia and fear. We quickly find a number of interesting opportunities, deploying our significant cash balances as we trade our precious liquidity for mispriced securities. We may lose money in the short term, as we add to our portfolio while prices are dropping. But when markets turn, we expect multiple years of strong profitability."
Building cash balances when bargains are hard to come by sounds easy, but in practice, it can be terribly difficult.
"Investing in tide markets takes chutzpah," Spector wrote. "To do so effectively, you need to fly in the face of public opinion, you have to fight normal human emotions, and you have to be prepared to double down on your bets when your conviction is most in question. As Benjamin Graham once said, the investor's chief problem and even his worst enemy is likely to be himself."
Value investing takes a ton of time
While the efficient market hypothesis is untrue in practice, market securities very often are fully priced, at least in terms of what is widely known and understood. That means finding undervalued stocks should be a rare occurrence. In Baupost's experience, it is.
"On most days, [the market] offers a menu full of bland, unhealthy, and fully-priced choices," Spector wrote. "We do enough work on the offerings to make sure we aren't missing anything and often go home feeling unsatisfied and unproductive."
When the Baupost team does find a promising opportunity, that means a significant amount of research must be completed in as little time as possible.
"We work furiously to understand the drivers of the investment. We spend an enormous amount of time focused on the downside and the risk of permanent capital loss. We also try to understand potential optionality and upside. We ask ourselves, 'How and when will the market eventually see the situation differently?' Once we have a hypothesis about why an investment may be interesting, we start down the path of trying to confirm or reject our original thesis. Depending on complexity and price, this process may take days, weeks, or even months. Oftentimes we place investment ideas back on the shelf and wait for a lower price. Only when the investing stars line up will we add the position to our portfolio."
Value investing takes a ton of time not just because of the research that's involved, but also because value investors frequently have to wait months, if not years, to purchase something on their watchlist. As Spector noted:
"We can do this successfully because we have a culture of patience. Even though we work hard every day trying to uncover the next great investment, we only deploy our capital when we have real conviction that we have found one. When we don't find interesting ideas, we do nothing and hold cash. For this reason, I've often joked that I'm 97% unproductive. While this means I better be damn productive the other 3% of the time, it also means exercising patience often and waiting for great opportunities. On the flip side, when an idea has been analyzed and is fully baked, we drop whatever else we are doing, discuss the investment, and make a decision. Our portfolio decision process must be incredibly efficient, as we recognize that good ideas are scarce and may prove fleeting."
Because value investing takes a significant amount of research, time and patience, it's important to bet big on your highest-conviction ideas. While Baupost often holds big cash positions, it also regularly sizes its biggest bets as double-digit positions. That's a practice that many hedge funds actively avoid.
"Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) said, 'Big opportunities come infrequently. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.' When a great opportunity comes around, it is imperative to size it correctly," Spector concluded.
https://www.gurufocus.com/news/940855/seth-klarmans-3-secrets-to-value-investing/r/caf6fe0e0db70d936033da5461e60141
This is one of the rare times that I agree with you. They do need to start thinking strategically in terms of what helps/hurts the share price. Friday afternoon PRs may boost confidence and give shareholders peace of mind going into the weekend, but come Monday the market doesn’t recognize the news. These PRs need to be held off until Monday AM, IMO in order to get the biggest effect from the market. I have stressed this to Mark several times. I think we all should keep requesting this of the company.
Say what you will about Verus, but numerous times I have suggested/requested small things to Mark (and I’m probably not the only one requesting) and shortly after we get a response publicly, regarding the very topic. Not always, but it’s happened numerous times, which tells me they care and they are listening. So if more of us are requesting this from the company, there is a better chance of them listening and putting this into action.
I encourage everyone to ask the company to be more mindful of news releases in the future, but be respectful (directed at everyone). Mark is awesome, don’t berate him as he has nothing to do with company decisions, and can only pass info to management. He will answer questions honestly and he is more transparent than any IR, I have ever dealt with. GLTA
$VRUS
Yep! The $820k order is the company’s biggest single order to date (outside of the Legacy GCC business), per Mark. And that was just a trial order. If they like it, there will be plenty more where that came from!!
I doubt it, that was an older note. Do we know who that noteholder was? I’ll try to look later, unless someone knows offhand?