Corpbuyer Honestly This Sounds Like Sour Grapes
I think that you should step up and say "Hey, Harry made a great deal, he's entitled to the benefit of his bargain, he took significant risk, he deserves what he got, and he even waived a 5% late fee he was entitled to!" And admit that with the benefit of hindsight, sure it was a great deal, it worked out well for him and if you or I could get in the wayback machine and loan IDCC the same money for the same return, we'd be competing to do it.
BUT at the time, there obviously weren't a bunch of people comepting to loan IDCC money--there was no certainty of repayment and even less certainty that the warrants would EVER be worth ANYTHING (and we didn't get detail on the terms of exercise other than strike price and often/frequently/usually, warrants have such additional terms--either time based or based on other events/underlying price of the common shares etc.).
Sure we'd ALL go back and do it. Right? But how many people were offering to do it THEN?
Not so many.
And, of course, IF I could go back in the wayback machine, there might have been even better investments--AOL soared through the mid 90s; ICGE, CMGI, RHAT, PALM, YHOO, EBAY, CSCO, QCOM--a whole bunch of socks that SOARED (and since then fell, some more than others and we could time our buys and sells perfectly).
But of course that is with the benefit of hindsight and contingent on the invention of the wayback machine (and if you have one, I'll invest in it).
I think it damages your credibility to count HCs money based on that loan and the fact that he was rewarded for making it and the risk he took and got and absolutely deserves the benefit of his bargain. Making THAT a part of any argument about his "Self enrichment" seriously damages your crediblity in my mind. Whatever he did AFTER that is a different story and he deserves credit for the good things and blame for the bad ones--but I don't hear that from you--all I hear is the blame? ANd that damages your credibility. I'd listen to a well made argument about "what has he done for me lately" and I owe him no loyalty for what he did then--just like he doesn't have to apologize for having made a good deal and profited from it, I don't have to apologize if I focus on what he's doing for me NOW--as to appreciating his past contributions if he's not performing now, well like they did with HG, give him a gold watch and say "Thanks, great job, next COB."
I just am not convinced that we're at that point.
AI
