Locan, Inc. (fka LOCN)

[Terin]

I'm currently long on LOCN, and I'm not totally convinced the RM candidate is Ambit. It will be nice if it's true. But, IF it is, then you're not going to hear anything official from anyone until Ambit had a chance to spin doctor the going public thing first with their distributors in the field. And, they would likely offer shares in the new company to the distributors in the field, along with assurances of always ensuring the distributors come first.

Usually such announcements are made at a major event hosted by the company...

Simple fact is that almost all MLM companies are private, and for a reason. Their vested interest is in the distributors in the field. If an MLM goes public, then the distributors will start to get concerned that shareholder interest will take a higher precedence, or worse, have the company sold out from under them.

And, there is a precedence for this occuring, which I'll provide the source below.

Fact is that Ambit has a commodity - that being their customer base. Problem is that, as an MLM, they can't really sell their company easily.

Companies go public for one of two reasons. 1) they need money, and 2) they want to package themselves to be acquired by a competitor.

Ambit does not need the money.

The name of the company I alluded to earlier was Excel Communications, and when they went public on the NYSE, it was huge. But, in the end, they changed from being a MLM company after a bankruptcy, and all the distributors were left out in the cold.

For info on Excel Communications, you can check out the Wiki at:

Excel Communications Wiki

Excel Communications was founded in 1988 by Dallas entrepreneur Kenny Troutt as a long distance reseller in the US telecom sector at the birth of telecom deregulation.

In the beginning, as the 432nd-largest long distance company in the United States, it began selling franchises through the business model of network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM), eventually selling over 200,000 of these franchises, or an average of 1 franchise for each 20 customers. In seven years, it became the fourth-largest long distance carrier in America and the youngest billion-dollar-annual company in history (8 years as compared to the second fastest growing, Microsoft, which took 15 years).

On May 10, 1996, Excel became the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading under the symbol (ECI). The ceremonial honor of ringing the opening bell was afforded to, Kenny Troutt, as the company he founded began its first day of public trading, with an offering of 11.5 million shares of common stock. Excel acquired Telco Communications Group, in June 1997, which was one of the nation's 10 largest long-distance phone companies with its own nationwide fiber-optic network. Before the purchase, Excel had to resell long distance service through other companies networks, such as Frontier Communications. In November 1998, Excel merged with Teleglobe.

Kenny Troutt retired as CEO, to be replaced by Christina Gold, on September 20th, 1999.

By 2002, Excel had entered the local phone service market more aggressively than smaller competitors such as MCI's Neighborhood. However, the gross margins associated with long-distance telephone service dropped precipitously during the period from 1998 through 2003 due to the entry of numerous competitors and additional line capacity into this sector. As such, the profitability of Excel and almost every other telecommunications firm dependent upon long-distance calling customer dropped precipitously.

At some point Excel/Teleglobe was taken over by Teleglobe's major share holder, Bell Canada. Bell Canada then demoted Excel separately to a subsidiary and eventually spun it off to a private company, VarTec Communications, which required FTC approval to return to the private sector. After approval, VarTec continued the network marketing business model for sometime thereafter.

On November 1, 2004, VarTec Communications (the parent corporation of Excel) unexpectedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the North Texas judicial sector. In this connection, Excel had sought to be released from its contracts with its independent representatives. This allowed it to continue to receive revenue from its large base of installed customers, without paying eternal commissions to the franchisees. Excel continued to operate but ceased to be a multi-level marketing company. Although it created a lot of cash to pay creditors, it was seen as shortsighted by the franchisee association since it removed the main source of sales and customer loyalty.

In September 2005 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the transfer of licenses to Comtel Telecom Assets, LLP and on June 12, 2006 the company emerged from bankruptcy under its new ownership, announcing a return to its former name (although with a slight change), Excel Telecom.


On March 16, 2010, Matrix_Business_Technologies announced it will acquire the customers and substantially all the assets of Comtel Telecom Assets, LLP, doing business as Excel Telecom.