I have had many conversations with the CEO and a few others. They all seem like good guys and are very "military" but I have always been concerned about the CEO's inflexibility about certain strategies. I completely understand that he has a lot of hard choices to make and I genuinely empathize with what he has had to overcome. The guys I spoke with are not stupid people, they are all very smart but they all operate like they are still in the military and they are not. This is Wall Street and its nasty. There is no military code or honor on the street. Its all about money and until they accept that this is all about money they will be behind. He once told me that he understands that this all about money for me but for him and "his team" its about much more. When I asked him what it was about then he said he saw this company as a tech company that will "support global U.S. interests". When I asked what that even means he said that "he intends to have the company develop tech that supports our way of life". Who talks like that? Only soldiers!
That said, those answers told me one thing for sure, he has no intention of letting this company fail and every intention of moving forward with his plan for the company (thats why I stay with this ticker). Hes not a crook hes an idealist and that is why I call him to hopefully wake him up that while I respect his patriotism or ideology I am concerned that he doesnt understand that Wall Street does NOT care about your agenda- it cares about your market value. His response to that was "a company is not a company unless it actually makes something and sells it at a profit". Of course I agree in part but I disagree that a "company" is solely that. He does not like the way people manipulate or play with stock by telling stories and I have told him that is what people think he is doing because they have fallen behind, over promised and under delivered. He accepted that and said he understood why people think that about him but he insists that they will "correct" their opinion once he is finished. The problem with that plan is WHEN- when is that going to happen. He MUST manage the public perception of the company and himself better so that shareholders know to be patient a bit longer.
To answer your question, I am not sure if they screwed up but they made a decision that left opportunity for trouble which I do not like. You can not trust shareholders to "help" you because they are not on "your" team. They are on THEIR team, they care about THEIR money and they dont know whats going on behind the scenes. You have to protect the company and its shareholders from everything and everyone including themselves. A very wise and experienced CEO told me that once and he was right! This CEO needs to learn that!
Of course if a merger is announced within the next 30 days I would have been wrong but 30 days is long enough for shorters to ruin everything IMO
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