Circa Pict. & Prod. Co. Intnl Inc. (fka CPPD)

[ltesprit]

Hi Seren

Tuna is speculating without saying so, so take him for what he's worth.

At the moment, sadly, I'm not 100% sure that the shares o/s is the biggest concern for us. Nothing is as it seems with Q because we only get fragments of truth about our investment and lots of b.s. But where there's smoke, there's fire: The stock price is now essentially zero (smoke) and we now learn that the company's financing was never as secure as portrayed. That's a dangerous fire. And now there's talk from a reliable poster on RB that subscribership and subscriber satisfaction isn't what Q has represented to us:

http://www.ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=QBID&read=1147317

That fire would make sense, considering the smoke from the 're-tooling'. Interestingly, Q removed their last PR, dated Feb 2, where they put their own spin on the shut-down:

http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=9555705&txt2find=press

Not sure what to make of that. Their lawyers may have told them to remove it, if what it said wasn't true. Bizarre. And not comforting.

The only encouraging thing, frankly, is that Carol Hinnart has not abandoned the company. Not yet, anyway. She is the only completely credible professional in that organization and if she wasn't at Q she could be working at any other channel. She was willing to state her support for the network in the Out.com article:

http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=16382

(btw, check out the Comments link at the bottom of the story. You'll find a familiar poster there with a typical inane comment.)

Carol was also reportedly quite positive at the Jan 30th GBBC event in Boston. Either Frank has left her completely in the dark (possible...) or the situation at Q is not really dire.

Also on the plus side, we are told (ahem) that we have significant tangible assets (eg, the film library) audited and appraised at several hundred million dollars. Net of any liabilities (which should be maybe $10 or $20 million at this point, I'm speculating here), that still leaves a significant net worth for the company. So even if the network were to stop operating, there is some recoverable value. Whether the outsider public shareholders get any of it is, sadly, up to Frank. He'd have lawsuits on his hands if he doesn't, but that would make for a long battle. I think enough of his friends and family are public investors, though, that he will let any liquidation prorate fairly to shareholders.

Liquidation is also not necessarily the end-game here. Someone may buy the channel. No doubt though it would be for less than the book value (ie, net worth) if the company is not in fact a going-concern. At least, if the buyer is savvy.

So don't give up hope, but don't be a Skunk, either: stay on top of this investment and help us push management to get its act together. It's been a long road and it hasn't necessarily ended.

As for Frank calling me today, something tells me he's going to be too busy. Just a hunch.